Virat Kohli, the star Indian hitter, finally ended a long wait on Thursday by notching his maiden century in over three years. In the Asia Cup Super 4 match in Dubai, Kohli, who last reached the century mark in November 2019, struck an unbeaten 122 off 61 balls. While India may not have advanced to the Asia Cup final, Kohli’s return to form has been a major plus, particularly with the T20 World Cup set to take place in Australia next month. Several current and past players had questioned Kohli’s position on the team for the Asia Cup before it began.
However, Kohli has undoubtedly silenced his detractors with 296 runs in five games. Kohli, who was named man of the match for his thunderous innings, expressed disbelief at the labeling of his knocks of 50 and 60 as “failures” when he wasn’t scoring tonnes during the post-game presentation. “What actually surprised me was my 60s became failures, which was very shocking for me. I was batting pretty well and contributing, but it didn’t seem to be good enough,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “But as I said, God has blessed me with a lot of good times in the past, and that’s why I’m in this position where these things can be spoken about. I have absolutely no shame in admitting that God is blessing us all with everything in our destiny, we just have to work hard,” said Kohli.
Kohli stated that after taking a vacation from the sport, he was able to restart and regain his lost motivation. “I went back to the drawing board, came back fresh, came back excited. The team management has also had great communication with me through these times, they’ve kept my perspective right,” the former skipper said. “When I came back there was not much information coming my way, they just said ‘you bat and enjoy yourself. So it was just a matter of getting back into the space of enjoyment.” “I have had many suggestions, a lot of advice has come my way. People were telling me I was doing this wrong, that wrong, I picked out all the videos from the best times I had. It was the same initial movement, same approach towards the ball and it was just what was going on inside my head I wasn’t able to explain it to anyone,” Kohli said about finding back his mojo.
“At the end of the day you know as an individual where you stand, and what you have to do for your journey, and people will have their opinions. But they cannot feel what you’re feeling. I have felt these last few months in a very different way, which is a very special time in my life. I’m very grateful for that time, my perspective had to change for me to move forward in cricket,” he added.
