If there was any debate about it, Virat Kohli sealed it on Saturday – he is the world’s best batsman

When you walk out of Churchgate station and turn right, the Wankhede Stadium is barely a five-minute walk away. For the first two days, it took about ten minutes to traverse this distance. Clearly, Mumbai retained its affinity for Test cricket.

From Thursday to Friday, the queues only grew longer. On Saturday, they were serpentine, stretching almost three blocks away to the local train station. The usual brisk walk took a good 15 minutes to navigate through the sea of fans. And all of them had come to watch Virat Kohli.

They were gratified almost instantly, as Cheteshwar Pujara shouldered arms to an incoming delivery. Kohli was at the crease on the third ball of the day, and stayed unbeaten until stumps. In between he orchestrated a majestic knock, a throwback to Sachin Tendulkar’s 76 against Steve Waugh’s Australia here in 2001.

Vijay provided the appetiser

But the Wankhede faithful had to wait for Murali Vijay took centre-stage first. It is important to give the opener his due here, before his eighth Test hundred gets lost in celebrating Kohli’s genius.

Vijay’s place in the eleven had been questioned prior to this match. It was unfair, for he had scored a hundred in Rajkot. Nevertheless, it was an unfamiliar sight to see him not scoring repeatedly in Visakhapatnam and Mohali thereafter, as is his wont when he gets to a good start in any Test series. By his own admission, the opener was playing at too many deliveries that he should have been leaving otherwise.

The rest period between the third and fourth Tests thus allowed him sufficient downtime to think about his game, and where he was going wrong. And voila, Vijay was back to his old ways – countering the English bowling on a turning pitch, finding the crucial sweet spot between aggression and defence, setting the benchmark for the top-order.

“We all understand each other’s game very well, especially the top four batsmen. We know what to do as per the situation in front of us. So we just stick to our game plans and work out situations in pairs,” said Vijay, after the day’s play. His words establish the crucial link-up between Vijay and Pujara first, and then Vijay and Kohli, as they laid down the foundation of India’s first innings.

And here, at this juncture, the narrative is overcome by the magic of Kohli’s willow. “You have to take off your hat sometime and just accept it,” said Joe Root, about his knock.

The sheer magic of Kohli’s willow

Root is among the top batsmen in the world today. He is in keen competition with the likes of Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson. Earlier, seen to be lagging behind them – at least in Test cricket – Kohli is now in a class of his own at the moment.

Wind your clocks back. No, not to 2014 when Kohli struggled to score a run against a near-similar English attack. Go back to Rajkot instead, to that fifth day when India were in bother on a wearing track and fighting to save the first Test.

Kohli’s brilliance at Wankhede finds its roots in that little knock. “I enjoyed this passage of play, because it helped us identify a new level to our game. Next time we can use this as reference and play well again,” he had said, after that draw.

On the third day then, this pitch was already more treacherous than the fifth-day Rajkot track. That determination flowed from the first Test, wherein he had been asked about his poor record against England before this series. “Can you repeat the question?” he had replied. There will not be questions asked any longer. The ghosts of 2014 have been duly buried.

No more questions

Kohli began with a flurry of boundaries – Cook’s odd plan of holding back James Anderson misfired, as did his reluctance to plug the third-man area. Having Vijay in full flow at the other end meant that he was never under pressure to pump up the scoring, a typical trait of his free-scoring ability.

At lunch, he had scored 44 runs, inclusive of five boundaries, running the rest hard in his unique fashion. Until then, Vijay had been the focal point but afterwards, his dismissal put the onus on Kohli. Going ahead, this was not about an extension of his Rajkot cameo any longer, instead it was a chosen moment to stamp his authority.

While the middle order collapsed at the other end, Kohli resolutely shifted gears. Out came the drives against Moeen Ali’s turn. Then, he pulled Adil Rashid to the mid-wicket fence, as the leg spinner tried to bowl into him from round the wicket.

Perhaps the shot of the day was when Kohli swept him for four – getting it fine, past the keeper and straight down the ground.

Indeed, it is getting tougher by the day to sing his praise. Often the phrase – he was batting on a different pitch as compared to others – has been repeated. It certainly was so when he put in a similar epic performance in Vizag. But, it was not so in Mumbai this time around.

Yes, he made it look leisurely than Keaton Jennings on day one, and even easier than Vijay today. Yet, there was an inherent struggle about this century. It was almost as if he was fighting an unknown force – perhaps the odd passage of play wherein the bowlers got on top, perhaps the pitch, perhaps the entire debate about his record in England which he had been trying to escape for so long.

His best on Indian soil?

And all of it was visible when he got to the magical three-figure mark – a mad dash for single, a leap of joy and a battle cry. This from a batsman who said two matches ago that he did not see a point in celebrating hundreds any longer. From a thumbs up in Indore to just a nod of the head in Vizag to a pumped up, more Kohliesque display of emotion here, this celebration was a confirmatory sign of the battle he had just won.

So, was it Kohli’s best effort yet? “I cannot answer that question now. He is just improving every day,” said Vijay.

Well, this innings was on par with his twin hundreds in Adelaide (2014-‘15), possibly just a shade under that humongous effort in the second innings there; it was certainly his best on Indian soil, yet.

Most importantly, it was a keen pointer of Kohli’s journey – from contender among contemporaries for the top batting spot to being the world’s best batsman today – across formats.