Virat Kohli loves challenges and the opportunities always spur him on to scale greater heights.
With his place in the T20 World Cup squad under scrutiny, the former India captain has taken it upon himself to prove he can still match the best in the business.
On Monday, a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was witness to his 49-ball 77 in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first home game this season. It paved the way for RCB’s first victory following Dinesh Karthik’s finishing touches.
The change in his approach was visible. In his first 15 balls, Kohli had hit eight fours and raced away to 33. It was the most runs he had scored off his first 15 balls in a T20 match. He was fluent in the middle overs too and scored at a strike rate of 150 in that phase.
There was no slogging involved, pure cricketing shots which gave the fielders little chance to anticipate. Kohli though was lucky to have survived off the second ball of the innings when Jonny Bairstow dropped him at first slip.
“In T20 cricket, as I am opening here, I try to give the team a blazing start. But if the wickets fall from the other end, you have to understand the conditions as well,” Kohli said after RCB’s four-wicket victory.
“The wicket was not as placid as Bengaluru usually is. It was a bit two-paced. And I thought I needed to play correct cricketing shots. Playing across the line was not quite working; I tried a few.”
The lofted cover drives after coming down the pitch to Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh stood out during his innings.
“They know I play the cover drive pretty well,” he said. “So they are not going to allow me to hit through the gaps. And with guys like KG, and Arshdeep as well, he is also tall, if they are hitting (good) length, you have to create some momentum into the ball. Once you are closer to the ball, you kind of negate the bounce; you meet it earlier.”
“You have to come up with a plan here and there, and try to keep improving your game. I know my name is nowadays quite attached to just promoting the game in many parts of the world when it comes to T20 cricket. But still got it, I guess.”
This was a subtle dig at Kevin Pietersen who recently said during commentary that Kohli should be picked in the squad for the T20 World Cup for the “good of the game regardless of his performances”.
“You want someone like Virat Kohli to grow the game in America and globally,” Pietersen said.
Kohli also focused on his time spent with family outside cricket after skipping
the entire five-Test series against England following the birth of his second child.
“We were not in the country. We were at a place where people were not recognising us. Just time together as a family, just to feel normal for two months,” Kohli said of him and wife Anushka Sharma. “For me, for us as a family, it was a surreal experience.
“Of course, having two kids, things become totally different from a family perspective. So just the ability to be together, the connections that you make with your older child, it’s amazing. I mean, I couldn’t have been more grateful to God for the opportunity that I got to spend time with my family.
“And yeah, just the place that we were in, I was telling the guys that when we came back, the voices back home felt that much louder. I couldn’t look up because I was just not used to being called my name for two months.
“And then immediately you hear these loud noises and then you’re back in it all again. But it was beautiful. It’s an amazing experience to just be another person on the road...”
Kohli said he remained grateful for all the love showered on him by fans. “It’s been going on for years and you know, people talk about a lot of other things when you play. The achievements, the stats, the numbers... Look, at the end of the day when you look back, you’re not going to think of the numbers and the stats. It’s the memories that you create,” Kohli said.
