When the Fab Four were etched into cricketing folklore by Martine Crowe, picking out a young batting quartet he predicted would achieve Test glory, little would one have known that the exact four names would stand on the podium of greatness a decade later. Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson made their debuts within two years of one another, rising to prominence around the same time.

They were young, talented, and relentless, each with their own style of batting. Smith, with his mental toughness and impeccable hand-eye coordination, found ways to punish bowlers even on challenging tracks. Williamson’s footwork and understatedness, coupled with an iron will, made him one of the toughest to dismiss. Root, the quintessential English batter, combined technique with flair. And then there was Kohli.

In his early days, Kohli was good, very good, but he wasn’t the standout. Root’s numbers were astronomical, Williamson had unmatched consistency, and Smith’s versatility allowed him to thrive in all conditions. Kohli, on the other hand, averaged 41.96 after 31 innings in his first two years. Good, not great. He had four hundreds and six fifties in this period, but his contemporaries were stealing the show.

But Kohli quickly changed that narrative. It wasn’t long before he left the others, embarking on a journey that would see him tower above, not just in terms of statistics but in his impact on the game.

Kohli’s meteoric rise

Kohli’s rise was meteoric, almost to the point of it becoming monotonous. His average skyrocketed to 66.79 between 2016 and 2019, with 16 hundreds and 10 fifties in 69 innings.

This period coincided with Kohli the Test captain as well, with the player single-handedly taking on the responsibility with the bat and of the team every time he walked out. In the process, he played innings of immense quality in various conditions, including in England, his Achilles heel once upon a time.

But beyond the runs and the records, it was the unyielding hunger that separated him from the rest. While Smith averaged higher, Kohli was in a league of his own, at the peak of his powers, and nothing seemed capable of stopping him.

The lull after the pandemic

Then, almost overnight, the pandemic hit. The world paused, and when cricket resumed, something was different. Kohli, the juggernaut, looked more human than he had in years. His bat, which had once flowed with much ease, seemed burdened. The centuries stopped coming, and his average dipped below 50.

In the blink of an eye, the gulf between him and the other three had closed, and soon, Kohli found himself behind them in almost every statistical category.

He has made just two Test hundreds in the last four-and-a-half years with eight fifties. The image of him jumping up in joy with the choicest of words after every milestone, the helmet and the bat up in the air, once routine, now seem a distant memory. It is not just the runs that have dried up; it's the aura as well. Kohli, who once walked to the crease with an air of inevitability, now looks... vulnerable.

For a man who had spent his entire career fighting to be the best, to now lag behind his peers must sting. Smith is still racking up runs, Root has found a second wind, and Williamson, when fit, continues to be a pillar of consistency. Kohli, meanwhile, is struggling and there’s a sense that this isn’t how he envisioned the final chapter of his career.

Joe Root now has the most Test hundreds for England. 👏

What a player. pic.twitter.com/k5OL6bgXXh

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 31, 2024

As his issues with playing deliveries on the fifth or sixth stump line seemed to end, his troubles against spin, particularly in home conditions, began to stand out. Watching him struggle for runs is truly heartbreaking because it is a battle between Kohli and his ability to dominate, which he has always prided himself on.

As the gap between him and the others widens, the question of Kohli’s Test legacy and how it will pan out alongside the greatest will be asked. Kohli’s footprint in Test cricket is already written in gold. He has given Indian cricket some of its finest moments, and his aggression, both as a player and as a captain, has changed the way the team approaches the game.

But if his form continues to dip, it will be hard for history to place him in the most elite echelon of Test batters. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they do matter. Kohli doesn’t need to prove his greatness, but he would want to go out on his terms, not as someone fading in the twilight.

In many ways, this is about more than just numbers. It’s about what Kohli stands for - the unyielding desire to conquer and rise above the challenges ahead of him. He may no longer be the best of the Fab Four, and time might be running out for him, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from watching him all these years, it’s that you can never truly count him out.

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