Widely regarded as the ‘King of Cricket’, Virat Kohli is finally back in form!! Maybe a New Year gift for many cricket fans, the century scored by Kohli on January 10th, 2024 in the One-day (ODI) match being played against Sri Lanka at Guwahati. The ‘King’ being back in form is not just a piece of good news for cricket fans around the world but also for the Indian men’s cricket team.
After a phenomenal knock of 113 in 87 balls and scoring runs with a strike rate of 129.88, Virat opened up a little more about what was going through his mind during the time he was not able to score as consistently.
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Kohli’s century drought comes to an end
Not that he was not scoring runs, we witnessed a few half-centuries, but a century was not seen coming from his bat for a long time. Virat ended the long century drought by scoring 122* against Afghanistan at the recently held T20 World Cup, which concluded in September 2022.
He then proved his masterclass in the third ODI against Bangladesh by scoring yet another ton towards the end of 2022.
This century against Sri Lanka is his second consecutive century. He achieved the landmark of scoring two consecutive centuries for the first time since 2019.
Wife Anushka, Kohli’s biggest support
Virat Kohli time and again has thanked his wife Anushka Sharma for being his biggest support during the bad form phase.
Once again he has done the same. While talking about the time he was going through a poor form, Kohli admitted that he was in denial of his form and said, “I was far off from my cricket. My attachments and desire had totally taken over.” He then remarked, “Frustration was creeping in…. I was getting very cranky, snappy in my space. It wasn’t fair on Anushka and my close one.”
Even previously, Virat has thanked Anushka at several press conferences and interviews for being by her side and has also said that he would not have been able to come out of the phase if Anushka wouldn’t have been there. He gives a large amount of credit to his wife for his recent and even fast successes.
Kohli’s Mindset
Virat has also been vocal about what he has been feeling. But during the bad phase, he did not often speak about how he has been feeling. Now when it is finally over, the batting genius had a lot to share about his mindset during the time success was not on his side. In a video interaction with Indian cricket star, Surya Kumar Yadav, stating his mindset during the times, he said, “I wanted to play [in] a certain way but cricket wasn’t allowing me to play like before.” “When you play more and more people look at you differently…Keeping up with that is…very intense,” “When [I faced]…ups and downs that’s where…the frustration started to creep in.”
Kohli reiterated that he had to go away from cricket in order to again feel the hunger he wanted to have to get successful.
Kohli breaks a few more records
The 34-year-old Indian batsman did not just score a spectacular century but has also added a few more records to his name. This is nothing new for this world-class batsman, every time he comes out to bat, and scores, at the stage of his career he is in, records are meant to be broken.
The ton against Sri Lanka was his 73rd International hundred. He is just behind the ‘Little Master’ Sachin Tendulkar(100) himself in the list of most International hundreds scored. Kohli also became the fastest batsman to score 20 ODI tons on Indian soil. He achieved the feat in just 99 innings bettering Tendulkar’s record. He also bettered the ‘Master-blaster’ to become the fastest batsman to slam 45 ODI hundreds, which Virat was successful in doing in just 257 innings. Sachin Tendulkar himself praised and congratulated Virat Kohli was his achievement.
