10 days in office, 626 runs: At 38, Virat Kohli is still the employee of the year

There is something almost hypnotic about watching Virat Kohli bat these days. One fan had a simpler way of putting it: "It's been a trance."The former India captain walks in, takes a few deliveries to understand the conditions, finds his rhythm and then gets on with the job. The runs come, the opposition's plans begin to unravel and, before long, he is walking back to the dressing room, soaking the applause from the crowd.The King walks off to a standing ovation! Watch #NZvIND 1st ODI LIVE on #SonySportsNetwork and #SonyLIV https://t.co/YDruRIVkeO— Sony LIV (@SonyLIV) November 4, 2026There is rarely a sense of struggle. Even when the conditions are difficult, he appears to have found a way around them. At 38, Kohli is making batting look remarkably uncomplicated, and his latest outing in Auckland on the eve of his birthday was another example of how he has perfected that art.There was a particular challenge awaiting India at Eden Park on Wednesday. New Zealand had been bowled out for 185 on a surface that offered bounce and movement to the fast bowlers. The Indian quicks, a quartet of rookies, had exploited those conditions, but batting was not going to be straightforward either. Rohit Sharma departed for a six-ball duck. Shubman Gill had to work hard for his 37 off 56 deliveries, while Shreyas Iyer managed 15 after being made to look ugly against short-pitched bowling. Kohli, however, seemed to be operating on a different surface.He scored 74 off just 51 deliveries, striking 13 boundaries and a six. His innings was not an exhibition of reckless hitting. It was a measured display of a batter who understood exactly what the conditions demanded and knew when to change gears. 1st ODI Scorecard | Highlights Kyle Jamieson, a tall quick, troubled him early. Kohli did not immediately try to dominate the New Zealand fast bowler. He negotiated the initial challenge, kept the scoreboard moving and eventually made a statement with a drive through the covers.He was 29 off 27 deliveries before the second rain interruption during India's chase. There was no visible panic. He had assessed the surface, understood the bounce and worked his way into the innings. Then came the acceleration. He reached his half-century in just 35 balls.Blair Tickner bore the brunt of it. Kohli pulled him into the stands in the 14th over before producing perhaps the most telling passage of his innings two overs later. Tickner tried the short ball three times. Kohli dispatched all three deliveries for boundaries. The first two were pulled through mid-wicket. The third climbed higher, but Kohli rode the bounce beautifully and guided it towards deep fine-leg.King raises his bat for a brilliant 50 Watch #NZvIND 1st ODI LIVE on #SonySportsNetwork and #SonyLIV https://t.co/jXaiyw0YLq— Sony LIV (@SonyLIV) November 4, 2026It was the sort of sequence that made the difficult look easy. Tickner had a plan. Kohli had an answer to every delivery.And that, increasingly, is what makes watching him so fascinating.10 WORKING DAYS, EXTRAORDINARY RETURNSIf international cricket were an office, Virat Kohli would be that high-value employee who doesn't need to clock in every day but knows exactly when he is needed. He turns up, gets the job done and leaves everyone wondering how he makes it look so easy.It is already November, and Kohli has had just 10 working days at the international office this year. With his Test and T20I careers behind him, the ODI format is now his only international assignment. Yet, in those 10 appearances, he has packed in 626 runs, averaging 69.55 and striking at 120.61. There are two hundreds and four half-centuries to go with them.The numbers become even more interesting when placed alongside his 2023 returns. Kohli scored 1,377 runs in 27 ODIs that year, averaging 72.47 at a strike rate of 99.13. The average has barely moved in 2026, but the scoring rate has shot past 120. In other words, he is producing almost the same level of consistency while getting the runs on the board considerably faster.The average chart is a reminder of just how consistently Kohli has operated at the top level. His 2017 season brought 1,460 runs at 76.84, while 2018 was extraordinary, with 1,202 runs at an average of 133.55. His 2023 numbers were another reminder of his ability to sustain a high level over a full calendar year.The strike-rate chart, however, captures the more recent shift. From scoring at 99.13 in 2023, Kohli has moved to 120.61 in 2026. It is not just that he continues to get runs. He is finding ways to score them faster, without sacrificing the consistency that has defined his career.Since retiring from Test cricket, he has amassed 1,002 runs in 16 ODIs at a strike rate of 115.17, with 30 sixes and 90 boundaries. The numbers suggest that the reduced international workload has not made him any less influential when he takes the field.And that is what made Auckland so striking. Kohli had not played an international match for nearly two months. He walked into a challenging surface, took stock, found his rhythm and produced a commanding 74 off 51 balls. No signs of rust, no prolonged adjustment period. Just another day at the office.The remarkable thing about Kohli is not how often he turns up anymore. It is how little he seems to need to get going when he does.A DIFFERENT PITCH FOR KOHLI Virat Kohli hit 13 boundaries and a six in Auckland ODI (AP Photo) Ravi Shastri, who has watched Kohli bat for years, was left impressed by the quality of the Auckland innings. He felt it was among the best knocks the former India captain had played in challenging conditions in recent years."And then, Virat Kohli. I've seen him bat for years and years. I think this is as good as he's ever batted in these conditions. On this kind of track, not to put a foot wrong, to play with that kind of fluency and authority is not easy. This is as good an innings as he would have played in probably the last seven, eight, 10 years," Shastri told Sony Sports on Wednesday.It was not that the surface suddenly became easier when Kohli walked in. The bounce and movement were available to the New Zealand bowlers throughout. The difference was in the way he responded. He did not allow the conditions to rush him into playing shots he did not need to play. He trusted his judgement, waited for the right deliveries and gradually took control."You don't have to get 150, 160 to say you're batting well. A little 60, 70, 80 in conditions like this is worth a hundred,” Shastri added.It was an assessment of the quality of Kohli's batting rather than merely the quantity of runs he scored. In Auckland, he had made a chase look comfortable when the surface had offered plenty of reasons for it to be otherwise.Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris offered another explanation for the ease with which Kohli operates. Sytris focused on his ability to find the right tempo early in an innings and maintain it without appearing hurried.He used the analogy of driving a car to explain the way Kohli approaches batting."You don't want to go too hard, you don't want to drive your car in fifth gear and try and keep it on the road. So you want to operate one below. He operates in fourth gear, he gets to fourth gear so quickly at the start of his innings and he just stays there," Styris said.It is an apt description of Kohli's method. He does not need to begin an innings at full throttle. He gets himself into a rhythm, rotates the strike, finds the gaps and keeps the scoreboard moving. When the opportunity arrives, he knows when to accelerate. Equally, he can dial it back when the conditions or the match situation demand it."One-day cricket is about tempo, and he just has mastered the ability to get to where that level he wants to. He can really push the envelope and put the foot down when he wants to, and he can dial it back when he wants to," Styris added.Master of tempo. Not many could have described him better, right?THE WORK BEHIND THE EFFORTLESSNESSThere is, of course, a considerable amount of work behind the apparent ease. Kohli's fitness and preparation have remained central to his career, even as his international calendar has become less demanding.Playing only one format internationally means fewer opportunities to build rhythm through regular match appearances. But the physical conditioning, training and preparation that have defined his career have not disappeared with the reduction in his workload.His running between the wickets is another part of that preparation. Shastri pointed out how Kohli's ability to convert singles into twos and keep rotating the strike puts constant pressure on bowlers."He is such a good runner between the wickets that the pressure is on the bowler all the time. He doesn't get too many deliveries to bowl to Kohli. He'll hit you for a couple of boundaries, he's off strike, look after the other guy. That's it," Shastri said.Styris, meanwhile, was struck by the calmness with which Kohli went about his innings in Auckland."You can tell players with absolute class when they play with this calm. Everything slows down, they never look hurried, they never look rushed," he said.That ability to slow the game down while scoring quickly is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Kohli's batting at this stage. He can be aggressive without looking reckless, patient without appearing passive and dominant without seeming to force the issue.Kohli has spoken about the changing demands of ODI cricket. After his 55th ODI hundred, which came against the West Indies at home earlier this year, he explained that he was willing to take more risks because teams were increasingly looking to reach totals of 340 or 350."The game is changing in a way that, especially if the conditions are fast-paced and good, and other teams are looking to push you towards 340-350, we should be able to get 350-360 as well," he said."I'm very willing to take risks now because I know that if I make runs there, we'll get 350-360 easily."At 38, Kohli has little left to prove. The records are extraordinary, the milestones keep coming and his place among the greatest ODI batters is secure. Yet, he continues to find ways to make the game look different.He plays just 10 ODIs in a calendar year, stays away from the international circuit for weeks, walks into a difficult surface and makes a chase look like a routine day's work. There is no visible rust, no frantic search for rhythm. He takes stock, finds his feet and takes over.Perhaps that is what makes watching Kohli so captivating at this stage of his career. The hard work remains invisible, the execution looks instinctive and the extraordinary has begun to feel ordinary.For his fans, it might well be a trance. For Kohli, it is just another day at the office.- Ends