Virat Kohli 139 Not Out: Is He Ready to Take over from Dhoni as India Captain?

You knew from his delectable flick off the pads from a ball hitting middle-and-off bowled by Shaminda Eranga that Virat Kohli was in the mood.

It came in the 10th over of India's chase of 287 on a slow, low, dry and dusty surface at Ranchi, when the home team were reeling at 29-for-2, having lost both their openers cheap.

A couple of overs later, Kohli played another gorgeous stroke off the same bowler. It was a mere gentle push through the covers, but one placed and timed with such brilliance that deep cover stood no chance of stopping the ball's journey to the fence.

Then, in the 19th over of the game, bowled by off-spinner Ajantha Mendis, the 26-year-old Indian heartthrob delivered his signature cover drive to bring up his half-century, his wrist movement so supple and the follow-through so elegant that the cameramen had an early Christmas.

Up until this last game of the five-match series against Sri Lanka, Kohli, the fastest batsman in the world to 6,000 ODI runs, had played a supporting role.

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Before Sunday's match, four of his teammates had scored centuries in the series—Rohit Sharma had even broken the world record for the highest individual score in an ODI. But Kohli, India's stand-in captain for the injured MS Dhoni, had been happy to watch his young team flourish.

His scores in the four matches prior to Sunday read 22, 49, 53 and 66. He had been overshadowed by his colleagues, but it was evident that he was building up towards something special.

Finally, it arrived when his team most needed it. Chasing a steep total considering the nature of the pitch, Kohli and reliable No. 3 Ambati Rayudu (59) weathered the early storm when India lost their openers within the first five overs.

At 150-for-2, he gaffed at the halfway stage of the innings when his indecision in taking a quick single cost his partner his wicket.

From there, he helplessly watched from the other end as the next four capable batsmen in the team departed—a couple of them inexplicably throwing their wickets away—to leave India at 231-for-7 with less than seven overs to go.

Somewhere in between, he got to his 21st ODI century, which is no ordinary tally when you consider the number of games he has played. Kohli, at age 26 and after just 146 matches, ranks fifth in the all-time list.

The names above him are Sachin Tendulkar (49), Ricky Ponting (30), Sanath Jayasuriya (28) and Sourav Ganguly (22), all of whom have long retired.

To put matters further into perspective, the person directly above him, Ganguly, took more than double the number of matches to get to his 22, while Jayasuriya took almost triple the number of games for his 28. Chris Gayle and Herschelle Gibbs, who also have 21 hundreds to their name, have taken at least 102 more innings than Kohli to get there.

However, in spite of India already having taken the series 4-0 coming into the final ODI, those numbers would have mattered little to him had India lost. But there was scant chance of that happening when Kohli was there.

Prior to this game, out of his 20 centuries, 13 had come in run chases, out of which 12 had resulted in a win for India. With those odds, there was only one result possible.

With some helpful resistance from No. 9 Axar Patel, Kohli got the equation down to 13 required off 12 balls after some lusty hitting, which included his nutmegging Mendis for a boundary.

The mystery spinner, who had taken four wickets in the match, was handed the task of bowling the penultimate over. Wrong move, as Kohli attempted the helicopter shot, almost got it right and sent the ball sailing over long on to ensure that Ranchi wasn't missing its home boy, Dhoni.

Two singles later, he beat Sri Lanka with a mighty heave over long on for six. It may not have been the World Cup final, but it sure had sent a clear message to the Indian camp.

Kohli, who has captained India's under-19 team to a World Cup triumph, has been Dhoni's understudy for a while now. With his stellar one-day form, he seems ready to take over the reins in the shorter formats even today.

There would not have been any doubts about his captaincy credentials in Test matches had it not been for an abysmal tour of England this summer, when he failed to record a single half-century in 10 innings.

The upcoming tour of Australia will be a huge one for Kohli's career. Only if he rediscovers his form in all-whites in an environment as hostile as Australia will the Indian team management be confident enough to hand over the baton.

Another flop show would certainly cast doubt as to whether he is still ready, and with no one else worthy of the armband, India could leave Australia with grave concerns about the future as Dhoni nears the end of his career.

India have never really tried the multi-captain format employed successfully by teams such as Australia and South Africa. If they want to stick to the traditional way, Kohli will have to step up Down Under.