Over five Tests during India's tour of England in 2014,
Virat Kohli averaged 13.40. Four years later, he went back to England and
topped the series aggregates with 593 runs, including two hundreds, at 59.30.
Thanks to the demand that TV analysis be brief and succinct, a neat and elegant narrative has come to surround this transformation in fortunes. The 2018 Kohli had left the ball with great judiciousness outside off stump, where the 2014 Kohli had often poked nervously.
The truth, as it often is, was more complicated. The 2018 Kohli batted beautifully, as anyone must to score so many runs anywhere, let against an attack led by James Anderson in England, but he didn't necessarily turn into a monk outside off stump. Apart from everything else that went into that prolific series, luck also played its part.
Kohli had been unusually unlucky in 2014, losing his wicket 10 times to 54 false shots according to ESPNcricinfo's data. In 2018, he was out 10 times while playing 200 false shots. There may have been less uncertainty outside off stump, but he hadn't eliminated it by any means. He still played at balls he could have left alone, but he played and missed far more often than he edged them.
On Tuesday
in Cape Town, though, Kohli played an innings that fully fitted the narrative of unwavering discipline outside off stump.
According to ESPNcricinfo's data, there have been 143 Test innings over the last five years where batters have faced 100 or more balls from fast bowlers that have arrived at a line outside off stump. Of all those 143 innings, Kohli's knock at Newlands featured the highest leave percentage against that sort of delivery: 57.4%.