“Wasn’t Doing Enough, Wasn’t Happy…”: Virat Kohli Opens Up On Lean Patch For Indian Cricket Team

Star batter Virat Kohli marked his return to his vintage after he smashed his 28th Test hundred during the fourth Test against Australia in Ahmedabad. The 34-year-old batter had last reached the triple figures in the longest format, back in 2019 during a Test against Bangladesh in Kolkata. After a gap of 3.5 years, Kohli not only brought up his 75th international Test ton but his knock of 186, helped Team India in playing a draw against Australia, which also booked their spot in the World Test Championship final.

Before getting his much-awaited century, Kohli battled through a lean patch and faced a lot of criticism during that time. In a recent conversation with South Africa legend and his former Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate AB de Villiers, Kohli accepted the fact that for the last couple of years, he wasn’t giving his best and wasn’t satisfied with the decent scores.

“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 said on AB de Villiers’ YouTube channel.

However, Kohli further said that his 28th Test ton against Australia gave him a “sense of calmness”.

“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,” said Kohli.

Earlier, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar also suggested that Kohli should stop focusing on the T20Is and should stick only to Test and ODIs as the shortest format is draining him out.

“As a cricketer, if you ask me, I feel he should stop playing T20Is and stick with only Test and ODI formats. T20I unki energy bahot nikaal deta hai (T20I format drains a lot of his energy). He is a very excited kind of character. He wants to be out there, he wants to look good. He wants to have a good time in T20Is. He likes it. But at times, he needs to save his body. How old is he right now? 34 right? Easily he can play for about 6 to 8 years. If he plays 30-50 more Test matches, I’m sure it won’t be difficult for him to score 25 centuries in those Test matches,” Akhtar told Sports Tak.