In an era of excessive advertising, we've all come across that archetypal 'transformation' ad. The before and after pictures of a morbidly obese man and his transformation into a male model with square jawlines; or a balding middle-aged man who has metamorphosed into a fashion icon with enviable hair.

And then there are time lapses, in photography, and in pop culture. Case in point: the Academy award-winning movie, Boyhood, was filmed over the course of 12 years (2002-2013) following the male protagonist from the age of 6 to 18. It runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes, so we essentially see a time lapse through his growth spurts, and, inevitably, distinct changes in every scene. However, in a parallel universe, if there was a 12-year long - umm - extended cut of this movie, the before and after shots would seem far more staggering.

For the Indian cricket aficionado, the extended cut started way back in 2008, when a dewy-eyed, zealous teenager by the name of Virat Kohli hit headlines after leading the Indian side to the Under-19 World Cup title. The teenager was fastracked into the senior ODI side as an opener, temporarily replacing one of Sachin Tendulkar or Virender Sehwag - perhaps two of the most feared (not to mention irreplaceable) names in international cricket at the time.

After a decade-long time lapse, we now see a leader of men with a full beard, sporting his predecessor's salt'n'pepper look - more mature and contained than he was a decade ago, but with a familiar zeal and exuberance of youth. To watch TV replays of his older innings, a teenager with patchy facial hair and a semi-mohawk, it dawns upon us just how much he has grown; how secure he has become as a cricketer and how comfortable he now feels in his own skin.

The eleventh hour - February 28, 2012

A young, chubby twenty-something walks hastily into the Bellerive Oval following the dismissal of arguably the greatest batsman to have wielded the willow. He faces the dreaded silence that he is now accustomed to, particularly after walking in to bat during the World Cup final of 2011, and replacing Sachin Tendulkar at the crease - an experience he later described as one reminiscent of "walking into a graveyard".

He reaches the pitch, looks overly fidgety and restless, marks his guard, spins the bat like a top in his hands (to calm his anxiety more than anything else) and examines the field. Virat Kohli taps his guard to face his first ball...

It was only a few weeks before this pivotal innings, that he had been reprimanded for making rude gestures at a hostile Australian crowd. Yet, he was the only Indian to score a hundred in the Test series; the only Indian, in a batting line-up that included the famed quartet: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. The Adelaide hundred had followed an even more impressive 75* at a bouncy WACA, where he had made the first adjustment in his stance: Kohli was now standing taller to get on top of the bounce on the hard Australian surfaces, as opposed to the slow and low Kotla track to which he was more accustomed. Over the course of the two taxing months Down Under, Virat Kohli had learned how to deal with mental disintegration, and it all culminated in a stupendous 133* at Hobart...

His Hobart masterclass didn't get off to a particularly fluent start. Armed with a side-on stance, and a crab-walking trigger, with the front foot walking across towards off-stump, Kohli was certainly limiting his range of shots. Contrary to popular belief, Kohli was never a classical, orthodox batsman. He particularly favoured the glance; and boy, did he nail it, even back when he was a rookie. His trigger and his grip were designed for the shot. Even his cover drive was essentially a bottom-handed glance with his wrists running through the line of the ball. He had calibrated his stance as though there existed a virtual pitch perpendicular to the existing one, and he was effectively glancing his cover drive through a virtual mid-wicket. Yet, after a bout of rain and a consequently tacky surface, he was unable to time the ball properly, assuming true bounce and continuing to miscue his whip-drives. These drives would give him one fleeting moment to get his wrists through the line and get it right, instead of a larger margin for error with a check-drive.

The glance came to Virat Kohli naturally; it was a shot he nailed even back in his rookie days

Moreover, with a Test series full of short-ball woes behind him, it was a surprise that the Sri Lankans didn't give it a go on that fateful night in Hobart. With his fully side-on stance and the lack of a back-and-across trigger, he gave himself a fraction of a second less to get into a balanced position for the pull, thereby making him vulnerable to the short ball by robbing him of room and leverage.

As the track started to dry out, and true bounce took over, the signature catapult shots started to connect. Malinga received a whooping of a lifetime, and India pulled off an unlikely victory as the modern king of the ODI run-chase announced himself. He had not only kept India pulled off a win, but in essence, dragged a drained Indian side out of the airport.

It was the celebration, though, that caught the eye. In stark contrast to the expletive-laden, absent-minded celebration at Adelaide, this new Kohli removed his helmet, and incredibly, smiled. He closed his eyes and soaked in the applause. It was a change in his mindset that reflected in his response to his hundred; a mental tweak that worked as a master-key to open his mind up to the physical adjustments that are inherently a part of a sport that relies heavily on a large array of playing conditions.

A taller stance to fight the bounce - South Africa vs. India, December 2013

The great Sachin Tendulkar has just walked into the sunset, and India have entrusted Virat Kohli with the coveted No. 4 position in the Test batting line-up. In the first Test at the Wanderers, Kohli started off with an impressive 119 on an initially-seaming track. And a billion souls breathed easy again; India seemed to have found a replacement for the irreplaceable.

However, in a game riddled with statistics, the fact that 15 venomous seaming overs (that loosened up and flattened the Kookaburra threading) had been seen off by the top three, was eclipsed by Kohli's pizzazz. He had made amends to his technique, standing up tall on the inherently bouncy tracks of South Africa and using a forward and across trigger movement, and as a result, pulling better than he used to, despite planting his front foot across in his trigger. How? He was simply quick enough and used the momentum provided by the trigger to swivel into the pull shot. He was simply good enough. But was it sustainable with age?

Left: Kohli pulling with a closed stance, and getting late on the shot. Right: Kohli pulling with a more tall and open stance and nailing the pull to perfection

There were flaws, and Kohli was struggling, especially against the pace battery of Steyn, Morkel and Philander. He was still committing to the line of the ball early as a result of his natural O-grip to get his bat down from gully. There were several alarming moments; leading edges over slip, mistimed whip-drives at seaming balls that could have been played more late with a V-grip, or even left alone. Yet, it was clear that he had made amends, partially at least, to address his old slip-ups.

Nevertheless, there was a long way to go.

An alarming trough - England vs. India, Summer 2014

The dreaded English summer was upon the Indian team in mid-2014. The last time India toured England, they were whitewashed 4-0 in the Tests despite a stellar batting line-up and one of the leading skippers in world cricket. However, the post-Tendulkar India inspired a confidence reminiscent of a clinical Aussie side of the late '90s. A certain expert remarked that Kohli would score at least 3 hundreds in the series, given that he appeared to be the most complete player in the side.

Notice how his bat comes down with a closed face due to the O-grip rather than the V-grip; essentially resulting in an off-side flick. This requires a preempted wind-up, and eliminates the ability to play the ball late

However, the loopholes in his technique were laid bare in England that year, as he infamously scored 134 runs over 10 innings. Chaos ensued. In the public eye, he was Anderson's bunny, weak outside off, a flat-track bully - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Kohli later picked out this nightmare (air-quotes) of a tour as the most productive learning experience of his career.

Virat Kohli hadn't changed much in his game to prepare for England. The bounce was not too steep in the UK, relative to Australia and South Africa at least, so he crouched lower in his stance - essentially ending up with his original stance. He stood on leg-stump, and stepped across, as usual, to get forward and have a go at the ball.

However, in the midst of the packed schedule, glitzy T20 leagues, and meaningless bilateral ODI series, India had overlooked a glaring blemish - Indian players no longer had county stints, and consequently, this new generation of Indian batsmen knew not of the Duke's witchcraft.

Virat Kohli was up against perhaps the greatest bowler to have laid a hand on the red Dukes ball, without ever having faced it in his life (in English conditions). He was caught wanting and off-guard. He had missed a trick. India had missed a trick.

The ball, and the bowlers wielding it, were way ahead of him, as the little devil deviated off that deformity of a seam on the lush green wickets of the UK, and ripped through anyone who disobeyed the holy commandment of playing late. That, complemented by the nagging accuracy and swing of Anderson and co., made it a fatal flaw to commit to the line before it was right under the nose.

Moreover, since he was stepping across from leg-stump without a movement of the back foot across, Kohli was off-balance post his trigger movement and his right eye wasn't quite on off-stump at the point of delivery; it was falling across the stumps, which made his off-stump awareness questionable in these conditions. In other words, his line of vision was changing when the ball was on its way, disturbing his perception of the line and therefore, inherently poorly affecting his instinctive response. Furthermore, he was moving towards the off-side and falling over at the moment of delivery; i.e., he lacked physical balance and stability at the most important point of the delivery - the release - giving him an incorrect perspective of the ball - a problem that he has since addressed, albeit, in his own way.

The Parallax Problem

Let's start with the picture on the right. What's the time? Clearly 9:18 (probably AM, given the blinding sunlight bouncing off of the metal rim).

What about the clock on the left, though? Definitely past 7:25. Probably 7:28 or 7:29. Intuitively, it might even be 7:30, given the angle of the photograph. There's no certain way to tell. We call this a parallax error - a perceived change in the position of an object due to a change in viewing angle.

Yet, the mavericks of the world have their own way of combating adversity. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in his prime, actually found a way to impart jaw-dropping power into his bottom-handed shots despite playing close to his body with minimum leverage - defying all odds, and playing the laterally moving ball late enough, and therefore, well enough. There's no reason Virat Kohli couldn't do the same.

Australia vs. India, December 2014: Check-driving and balance

India's best batsman had transformed into a flat-track bully overnight.

"I put too much pressure on myself before going to England. As subcontinent players, I don't know why, but you're given these benchmarks to go and perform in different countries, and if you don't do that you're not considered a good player."

In an exclusive masterclass with Star Sports, Virat Kohli broke down the flaws he had in his technique during the disastrous tour of England in 2014, and how he sewed them up after the draining and dispiriting Test series.

"It was more about me being desperate to do well in England. When you don't get off to the start that you want to, you start going down mentally and you can't prepare the way you want to."

There was a mental challenge, but mental strength was never a problem with Kohli. Nevertheless, there was a pattern in his dismissals in England. The moving ball. That corridor of uncertainty. The early commitment to the initial line of the ball. The problem wasn't just in the head after all.

"I was expecting the in-swinger too much. That opened up my hip a lot more than necessary in a Test series in England. I kept looking for the in-swinger and I was in no position to counter the out-swinger. I used to stand on leg and my stance was too closed."

More importantly, Kohli widened his feet in his stance after the tour of England, which was evident during India's trip Down Under in December 2014.

"I widened my stance as well, so that I have a good balance when I want to go forward," says Kohli, trying to break down his method to lower his center of mass for better stability at the crease. "Widening my stance really helped me giving that forward press. When I went to Australia, I knew they'd target me in that good area outside the off-stump, so I just cut down the good corridor," he continued. "80% of the balls, I was able to hit, more often than not, because I was about a foot outside my crease and already on fourth stump (thereby negating any movement)."

Moreover, it was an adjustment that was meant for ODIs, which Kohli adapted in Test cricket in a serendipitous turn of events. "The shot I developed past point is something that is really helping me now. It is a really minor change, a very minor adjustment to my grip.

"When I try to hit to point, I just make a small adjustment of opening the bat-face a little bit. I'm picking up the bat like that already," says Kohli displaying a slightly more top-handed grip (not quite the V-grip) as opposed to the O-grip, which he refers to as the 'slog' grip. "That helps me give a bit more room to find the right timing and placement past point. It's not even an inch of adjustment, and it gives you a lot more options in the field." This grip, essentially, allowed him to play an array of off-side shots, but at a microscopic level, also allowed him to play check-drive closer to his body which in turn made him delay his commitment to the line of the ball and increase his margin of error.

The first Test got underway in the aftermath of Phillip Hughes' untimely demise during the first week of December in 2014. Kohli started off with two majestic hundreds at the Adelaide Oval, and went on to score a hundred apiece in Melbourne and Sydney in a sterling series with the bat, as he subjugated the Australian challenges - mental and physical - as though he were playing on his home-strip at the Kotla.

Kohli had started to play the check-drive (albeit beside himself) allowing him to commit late to the line, and therefore giving his cognitive senses maximum time to respond to late movement off the pitch or in the air