During the gap between the lows and highs in England and Australia in 2014, the Indain skipper, Virat Kohli had sought help from the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, and he became “absolutely fearless” after that and it also helped him to face the likes of Mitchell Johnson. Kohli said that before the Australia tour of 2014-15, he had been treating overseas tours as “engineering exam that I have to pass somehow”.
During a recent interview on Sky Sports with Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli said, “To be honest before that Australia tour, I was treating every foreign tour like, more like an engineering exam, that I have to pass somehow and I have to show people that I can play at this level. You know that playing at this level over a long period of time, you tend to go into a space where you become a bit insecure, fearful, you want to prove to people how good you are in different conditions.”
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Virat Kohli witnessed his worst performance in an overseas tour in England in 2014, registering scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6, and 20 in five Tests. However, he made a phenomenal comeback in in terms of their form in the tour of Australia after that, accumulating 692 runs in the Test series. Kohli also said that during that break, he realized who was with him and who wasn’t.
Recalling the same, Virat Kohli said, “There I realised that once you are down and out, there was hardly anyone who came to help me, and you know try to get your game up to speed, everyone was just going after me left, right and centre. So, I was like I am playing to prove these people long, for what, I have got nothing to do with them, they literally have nothing to contribute in my life.”
He further elaborated, “So, I went back home, I was down for quite a bit, the great thing that happened at that stage was, I realized who is with me, who’s not, things were filtered to an extent that I just got so relaxed when I went back home, I was like okay. I have hit a rock bottom now, no one believes in me, everyone thinks I should not be playing Test cricket, so what can I do, I can just work hard as I can.”
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The Indian skipper also recalled that that during his workout sessions, he visualized how he would face former Australian fast bowler, Mitchell Johnson, who was at his ferocious best at that point in time.
Explaining the same, Virat Kohli said, “I went into a bubble, and called Sachin Tendulkar, I asked for his help, I said I want to get my game right, I want to understand what it is like to score runs at this level, my mindset was simple. I went back home I told myself, listen you can’t play Test cricket to show people that you can play in England, Australia and not get out. If you don’t score it is not a point, you play this game to make your team win.”
He further added, “So my mindset was I am going to go to Australia and how I am going to score runs against these guys. I promise you I was visualizing every day, when I was working out in the gym, that I am hitting Mitchell Johnson, I am hitting these guys all over the park. Those things came to life eventually because I convinced myself to an extent, when I went there I was absolutely fearless and things just started flowing.”
