The chants from the terraces started as soon as Shubman Gill was adjudged leg-before. The fans, most of whom had left their homes at 8am, were here for this and so they didn't want to waste any time. Even as Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal held a mid-pitch discussion around taking DRS, the spectators whipped out their mobile phones, zoomed in 5x or greater and trained their lens on the Indian dugout.
When Gill decided to turn back, the chants were at their loudest. "Kohlii, Kohli," it started. It was to the tune of "Sachiin, Sachin," from many moons ago. Their deity was here and nothing was going to prevent them from catching a glimpse of one of Indian cricket's biggest stars. To be in the middle of all this was to see devotees being granted an entry inside the sanctum sanctorum.
You are allowed to come in with your slippers but you need your fandom to be on point, keep aside all cynicism and scream till your throat starts to sound broken. The large Pune crowd at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium checked all of those boxes. Most of them were happy to even leave the shade to go to the bottom of the stands to get an Insta-worthy photo of their GOAT. It reached a fever pitch when Kohli took strike against Mitchell Santner, statistically the bowling type Kohli has come to fear a lot of over the last few years.
Slow left arm.
At one point of time in his career, he used to marmalise them for breakfast. A year after Covid, a hitherto unknown glitch left him mortal against all and sundry as long as they were left-arm spinners.
Jack Leach. Matt Kuhnemann. Ajaz Patel. Lasith Embuldeniya. Rachin Ravindra. Praveen Jayawickrama. Shakib Al Hasan.
They have all come to these shores in the last three summers and have invariably dismissed him once or twice (in Kuhnemann's case). And all of these dismissals have had one common trait. Target his stumps and/or his pads.
Put it this way. Till Friday morning, Kohli had faced eight left-arm spinners in India since the beginning of 2021. He had gotten out to seven of them (Taijul Islam the exception). The end result? From the time he made his debut till January 1, 2021, he was averaging upwards of 120 against this specific type of bowler. In the last three years, it's been in the lower 30s.
So when Kohli took guard, the crowd also kind of knew that their joy may be short-lived.
After Kohli took a giant stride for the first few balls and played the Santner over, the crowd began another chant. "India ka raaja," they kept screaming. "Virat Kohli."
Was the last five minutes going to be worth the hype? Was all that juice worth the squeeze?
Nope.
Santner, perhaps predictably, became the eighth left-arm spinner to remove Kohli in a Test in India since 2021. You could hear a pin drop as Kohli kept looking at the pitch, trying to process the latest in a catalogue of dismissals.
Six minutes, nine balls, one run and unimaginable, incomputable pain.
The fans turned their heads towards the big screen to understand how the LED bails had lit up. The replays had revealed an uncomfortable truth. This wasn't even all that good a delivery.
Santner went wide of the crease but his length was all wrong, the line was also slightly off. When it came out of his hand, the dip wasn't there. It was going to be a full toss on middle. Kohli, who has a slightly more open stance these days to take the leg-before out of the equation, was caught in two minds. He was shaping up to defend but once he saw the length, he changed his mind.
In the end, he ended up trying to slog sweep when he was in no position to do so. He missed the connection and the ball crashed into the stumps. The only ones making the noise inside the Stadium were the 11 visitors who couldn't believe what they had seen. Up in the commentary box, a plan to compare the respective stance of Gill and Kohli was silently shelved.
Watching the dismissal in real time and the replays, it was suggestive of a man overthinking his processes, somebody desperately in need of an Indian summer during the autumn. In isolation, it was possibly one of the worst shots of his career. In the lunch time show, Saba Karim, part of the expert panel for the host broadcaster, said: "His first intent was to defend. He realised it was a full toss so he wanted to capitalise."
During the same discussion, Anil Kumble suggested that he could have played an innings or two of domestic cricket in September to get into the groove.
Where does the 35-year-old go from here? He relishes a challenge and a match-winning, legacy-saving, fourth-innings knock can be a start. But Santner and Ajaz Patel will be ready for him.
Kohli against left-arm spinners in India
Career
Runs: 974 | Dismissed: 15 | Avg: 64.93
Since 2021
Runs: 259 | Dismissed 9 | Avg 28.77
9 - All nine of Kohli's dismissals to left-arm spin have either been bowled or leg-before
8 - Kohli has been dismissed by left-arm spinners in India. He has only faced nine in this time period