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Why did CW not see this coming from Kohli?

Singh767

School Boy/Girl Captain
Of course not a personal attack etc. I will just give examples from people who are not CW forum members. So so many times in last 4 years, Kohli was an unreal ODI player but only averaging mid 40s with the bat in tests, but it was blatantly obvious that someone so good in ODIs would convert to Tests - however on CW so so many users would dismiss him as a test batsman and riduicule any mention of him in a test 11 (various threads showing this a few years ago).

My question is how can so many cricket nerds (Trust me I am one) can get it wrong? For me and the below it was so blatantly obvious he would transfer his ODI record to tests simply by his technique and method of building an innings.
So my main relative question here was what was it in Kohlis way of playing was it that people thought it was the norm here to assume he would not be accustomed to transfering his ODI record to Tests? This forum had an endless amount of users ridiculing him and dismissing him as a test player, when the below who are not as well cricket informed did not. Sorry, I do not mean to sound like Mr Miyagi repeating myself lol.

- My boss, German, watching cricket for 6 years fell in love with the sport when moving to UK, preferred ODIs to any other format and openly said to us all Kohli would be a great in Tests in last 20 years. About 8 cricket fans in my office, we stumbled across cricket web forum, and there was a thread at the time which dismissed kohlis test record. We read it all together and laughed our heads off, many off them left this forum as they said they did not respect peoples opinions who simply could not see how obvious it was Kohli would take this record to Tests from ODIs (out of the 8 - 5 were English, 2 Pakistani, 1 Indian).
Plus I showed my numerous cousins (us Indians have many lol), about 12 of us who are addicted to cricket, 4 years ago this forum. After a week they said to me "why is Kohli laughed at so much, how obvious can it be that he will transfer this record to Tests".
How did fellow cricket nerds on here get it so wrong? Not me, but there was so many that dismissed and ridiculed this guy when it was obvious that his slow test start would transfer over
 
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SillyCowCorner1

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That one season in the IPL revolutionized his test batting; he couldn't score double centuries. Then the subsequent came and went, he performed like a beast, then that translated into his test batting.

Captaincy also made him a better batsman
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I don’t recall anyone saying he COULDNT be a test bat. If anything they were noting he wasn’t as good as he could be.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
Kohli is a good Test bat, definitely in the top 15 in the world right now. Maybe even the top 10.
 

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
At the opening poster: Firstly, cricketweb forum has a multitude of people having different views on him. From Jono who is one of his biggest fans around here to me who is still skeptical about his dabs outside off stump which are far too much for my liking. Also, I sense immense hero worship from you, which isn't uncommon for most fans. However, most here like to discuss and critique a bit more. Having said that, almost no one says that he isn't one of the better test batsmen in the world, really.
 

Gnske

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I enjoyed memeing him to be allergic to red balls as much as the next fella.

But the implication here is that taking the piss out of him at the time means we never thought he could get better?
 

the big bambino

International Captain
Actually he is a great player, dabs outside off notwithstanding. He can play all types and lengths of bowling, can succeed in any condition and as this series is showing, has an ability to learn from a failure and succeed when subsequently presented with the same bowling and conditions.

An absolute **** of a man though.
 

Slifer

International Captain
Huh?? Nobody ever doubted kohli. I remember years ago there was a thread asking to place bets among cricket's young batsmen, I put my lot in with Kohli. In tests he's considered among the big 4. Of the 4, he's probably number 2 behind Steve Smith. It'll take a lot more than one good series in England to top Steve. But he's well on his way to trying.
 

Zinzan

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Huh?? Nobody ever doubted kohli. I remember years ago there was a thread asking to place bets among cricket's young batsmen, I put my lot in with Kohli. In tests he's considered among the big 4. Of the 4, he's probably number 2 behind Steve Smith. It'll take a lot more than one good series in England to top Steve. But he's well on his way to trying.
Smith will take a bit of beating based on what he's achieved in the last 3-4 years, but while he's on the sidelines and Kohli continues to pile the runs on in the fashion he is, he may well be close.

Interesting to note that Kohli has been now been better than Smith in the last 2 years, averaging 71 in 24 tests, with 10 hundreds, vs, Smith's average of 67 in 20 tests with 8 hundreds.

One thing for sure is there's daylight behind Kohli and Smith to Joe Root in 3rd place now.
 

Slifer

International Captain
Yeah Kohli ie closing the gap. However, kohli is only now starting to tour and play challenging away series. For the past few series it's been either SL or home series. In their head to head matchup Smith won decisively. But good on kohli for doing well in rsa and now he's well on his way to correcting his record in England.
 

Gnske

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Smith will take a bit of beating based on what he's achieved in the last 3-4 years, but while he's on the sidelines and Kohli continues to pile the runs on in the fashion he is, he may well be close.

Interesting to note that Kohli has been now been better than Smith in the last 2 years, averaging 71 in 24 tests, with 10 hundreds, vs, Smith's average of 67 in 20 tests with 8 hundreds.

One thing for sure is there's daylight behind Kohli and Smith to Joe Root in 3rd place now.
Loathe to be Kane Williamson getting to play **** all while his peers pile on runs.

I'd actually have Kohli at a level just ahead of Smith with Kane and Root on the third tier.
 

TheJediBrah

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Kohli defo ahead of Smith atm

btw this is a really dumb thread. Some people didn't predict something with 100% accuracy? unbelievable!
 

vcs

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He may be an arrogant **** in general, but in the last year or two he's really improved on two key aspects that Test batsmanship is built on. a.) He's shown the ability to graft through tough periods and convert starts into huge scores, which were missing earlier in his career and b.) He's made technical changes to deal with the "poking outside off" chink in his armor.

If only some of our other batsmen had his relentless drive to improve, we really could have got some good results in this overseas touring cycle.
 

vcs

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Smith will take a bit of beating based on what he's achieved in the last 3-4 years, but while he's on the sidelines and Kohli continues to pile the runs on in the fashion he is, he may well be close.

Interesting to note that Kohli has been now been better than Smith in the last 2 years, averaging 71 in 24 tests, with 10 hundreds, vs, Smith's average of 67 in 20 tests with 8 hundreds.

One thing for sure is there's daylight behind Kohli and Smith to Joe Root in 3rd place now.
He will be very very close to Smith (probably ahead in the eyes of many) if he keeps doing well in the rest of this series and Australia later this year.
 

Daemon

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@op, I believe the general consensus was that he was not quite there yet as a Test cricketer at the time (which was true). As for his potential there were plenty of backers I believe.
 

trundler

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If you go through the tour thread, many were backing Virat to redeem himself, be the leading run scorer and heavily outscore Root.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
I'm sure there were some actual doubters but I don't think it was the standard position of CW. There were certainly a few people who argued he was being rated more on his potential than his actual output at one point, and that was true IMO. I don't think too many people argued they thought it was unlikely for his output to increase to a point where he deserved that rating, and the ones who did (Howsie mainly I think) were shouted down when they started threads about it.

We had hb and Jono here predicting ridiculous heights for Kohli before he'd even made an ODI ton. It's not like we were blind to his talent.
 

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