November 2019 to September 2022 was one of the most frustrating phases in Virat Kohli’s illustrious career. His runs dried up and centuries across formats seemed to be distant dreams. With every early dismissal, his frustration was visible. He even stepped down from the leadership in T20Is and Tests, also relinquishing the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to focus on his game. But these moves didn’t seem to be paying off.
One of his photos from the IPL 2022 went viral in which he was looking at the sky at the sky and screaming in frustration after getting dismissed for a first-ball duck against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mumbai. In a conversation with sports presenter Jatin Sapru, Kohli revealed what went wrong with him.
“Things turning around in a way that they did since I came back because I decided to step away and connect to myself deeply. Doing things from a superficial point of view, which is ‘Who am I to people’, ‘What are they expecting of me’, ‘What am I expecting to go and do’. I was never about how I was feeling, what I wanted to do,” Kohli told Sapru in a conversation on YouTube.
“When you go in that phase, it’s very difficult to keep focusing on the middle lane, which has got you to the place that you are in. My focus shifted and I started looking at the situation. I was in the wrong lane. When I came to the lane I was closest to, everything started flowing again. I’m grateful that I got so much learning from that phase,” he added.
After struggling for close to two years, Kohli roared back to form with a blazing hundred in the Asia Cup 2022 against Afghanistan. It was his first ever T20I century which ended his drought of tons in international cricket.
After notching three figures, Kohli had burst into laughter. However, later when he spoke to his wife, Anushka Sharma, he was in tears.
“To be honest, the ball before I got to my hundred, I thought, ‘Oh! I’m on 94, I could probably get this’. And the next ball went for a six. But the moment I got there, I laughed so hard… iske liye ro raha tha do saal se? (I was crying for this for the last two years?). Just for these two seconds, I let myself go through that,” Kohli said.
“That moment happened and ended. The sun was up again the next day, it wasn’t going to be forever. It wasn’t like pausing that moment when I got the hundred and should stay there forever. It was so funny. And, when I spoke to Anushka, I was in tears,” he added.
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