"People Were Telling Me I Was...": Virat Kohli Opens Up On Frustrating Time Ahead Of World Cup
Virat Kohli has been in tremendous form this year in ODIs.
Virat Kohli will be featuring in his fourth ODI World Cup as Team India look to end a 10-year drought for an ICC trophy. Kohli, who made his World Cup debut in 2011, was part of the MS Dhoni-led side that defeated Sri Lanka to lift the trophy in Mumbai. After overcoming a rough patch, Kohli has been in tremendous form this year in ODIs, scoring five centuries, while also becoming the fastest batter to register 13,000 runs in the format. With 47 ODI centuries in total, Kohli is on the cusp of surpassing his idol Sachin Tendulkar's all-time tally of 49 as he gets set to lead India's charge at the World Cup.
Reflecting on his rough patch, Kohli said the past few years have been a massive learning curve for him.
"The last two and a half years have taught me a lot. Those angry celebrations are a thing of the past. I have had many suggestions, lots of advice has come my way; people were telling me I was doing this wrong, that wrong," Kohli told ICC.
"I picked out all the videos from the best time I had, same initial movement, same approach towards the ball and it was just what was happening inside my head, I wasn't able to explain it to anyone," he added.
With veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin added to India's squad as replacement of Axar Patel, Kohli is the second player from the class of 12 years ago to be part of India's squad this time around.
India World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
India Cricket Team
Virat Kohli
Sachin Tendulkar