Full circle 11 years later

Leading rival sides in a World Cup semifinal may provoke a feeling of deja vu for India skipper Virat Kohli and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson when they head out for the toss today to kick off their World Cup semifinal in Manchester. 11 years ago, two of the world’s best batsmen were unknown to casual cricket fans and were leading their countries’ Under-19 sides in the U-19 World Cup semifinal in Malaysia.

11 years on, little has changed as the two are still the main batsmen in their respective sides and while Kohli has played second fiddle to the prolific Rohit Sharma in this tournament, Williamson has scored 481 runs -- 28.73 per cent of New Zealand’s runs. Kohli trails slightly on 442.

At their respective pre-match press conferences yesterday, the two skippers enjoyed being reminded of the match 11 years ago.

“Actually, I’ll remind Kane also, I’m sure he remembers, when we meet tomorrow I’m going to remind him,” Kohli said when asked whether he thought 11 years ago that they would be squaring off in the real deal. “It is quite a nice thing to realise that 11 years later, we are captaining our respective nations again in a Senior World Cup. Neither me nor him, could have ever anticipated that one day this will happen.”

Like Kohli, Williamson was also caught up in this World Cup too much to think about a youth game 11 years in the past.

“I actually hadn’t thought about that at all so I guess that’s kind of cool, isn’t it, that a few years later, we’re here again, perhaps on a slightly different stage, but pretty special and a lot of respects to being able to lead your country out in a semifinal on the biggest stage,” Willamson later said yesterday.

Both greats claimed that they saw something special in the other in their young days.

“It’s not even 2008, I remember 2007 we went to New Zealand and we were playing an U-19 Test match and he played a shot off one of our fast bowlers, who was quick, off the back foot and I remember standing in slips and telling guys: ‘I have never seen anyone play a shot like that’,” Kohli recalled.

“He was a formidable player, growing up -- that seems odd to say because we were at the same age playing against each other on a number of occasions and then to go into international cricket at a youngish age, then IPL and these different sorts of things. It’s been a pleasure watching Virat play and evolve into the superstar he is.”

New Zealand lost that semifinal 11 years ago, but not all details of that match may be repeated today.

“I got Kane’s wicket? Did I?” laughed Kohli. “I don’t know if that can happen again now.”

“Oh dear. Tell me how (laughter). He used to be an all-rounder I think back in the day, but hasn’t bowled as much recently,” was Williamson’s take.