Former Indian skipper, Virat Kohli conceded that he was unhappy with himself as he failed to make sizeable contributions for the team in Tests for more than 3 years before he got to his century in the 4th and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Ahmedabad. He said his 28th Test ton has helped him regain a sense of calmness and made him feel more grounded with regard to his match, adding that it has helped him be less desperate when he goes out to train every morning.
Kohli’s place on the Test side came under the scanner after his poor outings in India’s tour of Bangladesh in 2022. However, he scored his first ODI century after a gap of 3 years in Bangladesh in December after which he hit 2 centuries in 3 matches against Sri Lanka in January. The return to form in T20Is and ODIs did not help him regain his Test form immediately as he had scored just over 100 runs in the first 3 Tests of the BGT. However, Kohli battled hard in the 4th and final Test on a slow pitch to score 186.
Talking about the feeling after scoring the century in Ahmedabad Test, during a chat with AB de Villiers on his Youtube show, Virat Kohli 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.”
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He further added, “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.”
Furthermore, Virat Kohli’s numbers in Tests were pretty downgraded before the Ahmedabad Test. While his century drought was making headlines, he had gone without a fifty-plus score in his last 15 innings in Tests before the century.
Elaborating the same, Virat Kohli said, “I and AB have been in touch for a while. he knows how much I value Test cricket. 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. It was just testing me costantly. That is something that I have always cherished as a cricketer.”
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He further explained, “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.”
Virat Kohli will be in action in the 3rd and final ODI of the 3-match series against Australia. With the series level at 1-1, there is everything to play for in the series finale in Chennai on Wednesday, March 22.
