At the zenith of their Test cricket careers, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, both prolific run-getters for India, talked of entering ‘the zone’ while batting. Asked what this zone was, Tendulkar said, “I see nothing except the ball while I am batting. The concentration is such that you don’t think of anything else.” Dravid said something similar, adding that he did not even see the sight screen, the non-striker, the umpire or who was bowling when he was in the zone. Virender Sehwag, one of cricket’s most unconventional hitters, believes that the skill lies in keeping your head still, your body in balance, for a batsman to score plenty of runs.

If there is ever a zone in politics, then in his ninth year as prime minister, Narendra Modi has entered it. How else does one explain the phenomenon where, in the midst of a major economic crisis both in terms of inflation and unemployment, his approval ratings have reached stratospheric levels, as indicated by the latest INDIA TODAY-CVoter Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey conducted in January 2023? Asked to assess his performance as prime minister, as many as 72 per cent of the respondents rated it as outstanding to good, an impressive nine percentage-point increase over the results in January 2022.

In politics, Modi has always batted on the front foot, combining the genius of Tendulkar with the grit of Dravid and the flamboyance of Sehwag. He also has the qualities of a great all-rounder like Kapil Dev who had the ability to swing the ball both ways in the air, foxing even the best batsmen, and then swing his bat to hurricane centuries. This is the fourth time since 2015 that Modi’s popularity has crossed the 70 per cent mark—his lowest rating in these seven years being 54 per cent in August 2021. With his actions, Modi is able to elevate the performance of his entire team. Thus the satisfaction