"Sachin fails again", "Another failure for the Master Blaster", " GOD disappoints again", the events of the past 12-15 months have reminded me time and again about those heady days of 2011/12 when every time Sachin used to get out for a sub-100 score, these types of headlines would appear in many newspapers.
Tendulkar was chasing his 100th international hundred but it seemed like, more than him, it was his billion fans who were chasing it more. And so every time he scored anything less than the three figure mark, it used to be met with huge disappointment.
People even deemed it as a 'failure'. It almost used to feel as if the parameters of success on which other players were judged were different when it came to Sachin.
A score of 70, 80, even 99, which would normally be considered a success for any other player, when it came to SRT, it wasn't good enough.
To be honest, it used to infuriate me to no end, seeing people whinging about what didn't happen while overlooking and not cherishing what was in front of them.
Later, it dawned on me that perhaps, Tendulkar was a victim of his own achievements; a prisoner confined in the deepest layers of his own greatness, from whom people expected nothing less than a 100.
People had become so accustomed to him creaming those hundreds for fun that they almost took it for granted. And when those hundreds dried up, they weren't ready to accept the reality. They thought that Tendulkar was "out of form" when in reality, he wasn't.
Over the course of the last 12-15 months, I've sensed the same with yet another run-machine, who, once upon a time, used to score hundreds for breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Yep, I'm talking about Virat Kohli. The last time Kohli scored an international hundred, the word Coronavirus was oblivious to the world, words like lockdown, quarantine were yet to become mainstream: November 2019.
Since then, he has gone 65 innings across formats without the elusive 71st ton. And the general sense among casual fans is that "Kohli has been out of form for 2 years now".
While that is true to an extent in Test cricket where he has averaged 28.14 in his last 15 innings, but the same can't be said about white-ball cricket.
Since the start of 2020, Virat is averaging 45.06 (15 matches) in ODIs with 9 50+ scores- the most by any Indian. He is also the second-highest run-getter for India in the shortest format. In 17 innings, the 33-year-old has scored 594 runs at an average of almost 50 (49.50) and a strike rate of 137.18 with 5 50+ scores.
Yet, the common narrative is that Virat is out of sorts. To be honest, one can't blame the fans either. Anyone who saw Kohli between 2016-19 is bound to have the same expectations from him; expectation that he will churn out hundred after hundred every time he strolls out to bat. It was he, who courtesy of his freakish consistency, took the level of expectations to such high levels that now, it feels as if he has become a victim of his greatness.
That said, it is unfair on Kohli that we as fans keep harping on about the elusive 71st ton while overlooking the underappreciated gems that he has dished out even in this supposed phase of "mediocrity".
His 201-ball 79 in the third Test of the recent series in South Africa was one such masterclass that should be celebrated without the caveat of "Oh, he again missed out on a hundred"
Kohli is locked up inside the prison of his own greatness and with every innings he fails to score the hundred, the jail term is only getting extended.
It is pretty unfair on him as it was on Sachin. But then, it is they who spoiled us; it is they who transcended our level of expectations; it is they who took us to a wonderland with their freakish level of consistency; and now that it isn't happening anymore, people are bound to crave those days again.
Craving is fine, it’s a natural by-product when one doesn't get something he/she is so accustomed to, but let's not overlook what's there in front of us. Let's cherish the process, let's cherish the 60s, 70s, let's cherish the phenom that is Virat Kohli.