I Wasn't Happy: Virat Kohli Talks About His Rough Phase
Virat Kohli (AP News)
Indian stunner, Virat Kohli recently spoke about finally ending his long period without scoring a century in the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy during the Ahmedabad Test against Australia.
Kohli scored a determined 186 runs in the fourth and final Test, which helped him regain his form in red-ball cricket. Although, his 27th Test century was in 2019 against Bangladesh in the day-night Test, Kohli's century in Ahmedabad was particularly significant as it came in a critical match for India in terms of their place in the World Test Championship final.
While having a conversation with AB De Villiers on his YouTube show, the former skipper shared that scoring a century in the Ahmedabad Test helped him to regain his composure and a sense of relief.
He said:
“So, when I made the hundred and converted it into a big one, that gave me a sense of calmness, relaxation, and excitement again. You kind of become comfortable with your game, and your thinking, and your heart is not rising before the next practice session. You eventually want to be in such a space. And that particular hundred gave me a grounded feeling back. Just from a cricketing perspective. In life, I was pretty happy and relaxed. But when playing also, you want to be in that space as much as possible,"
Kohli acknowledged that he had not been performing at his best in the past few years and shared his state of mind that left him feeling dissatisfied with his game and added:
“I was getting decent scores, but if you ask me if I was happy with what I was doing. I wasn’t. I pride myself in performing for the team to the best of my ability, I certainly wasn’t doing that enough. I wanted to score big runs, that’s something that always propelled me, whether it was at home or away. I was doing that to a certain extent. But I was not having the same kind of impact that I had before,"
Kohli also mentioned how he continues to maintain regular contact with his former Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate as they have a strong bond. The skilled batsman expressed his appreciation for Test cricket and discussed how it differs from the other two formats.
“I and AB have been in touch for a while. He knows how much I value Test cricket. Even though, I had performed in T20Is again and scored ODI centuries and all that stuff, I always felt that white-ball cricket, for me, was more of a thing where if you go in with the right frame of mind on a particular day, you can get past the hurdles. But even though we played the Test on a wicket that is not offering too much to the bowlers, you still have to bat for good 7-8 hours sometimes, because they (Australia) are that patient with their fields and they could go defensive."
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