Kohli could not score a single century in international cricket in 2020 and 2021.
While the T20 World Cup 2024 got underway on June 1, India will begin their campaign against Ireland in New York on June 5.
Ahead of the game, all eyes are on Virat Kohli, who is expected to be India's main batter in the showpiece event. The star batter finished as the Orange Cap winner in recently held IPL season, amassing 741 runs in 15 innings at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69 with one hundred and five half-centuries.
Thanks to his brilliance, RCB made it to the IPL 2024 playoffs despite winning only one of their initial eight matches.
While Virat Kohli has returned to the record-breaking spree with the bat, there was a time when he was struggling to score runs consistently. In fact, the right-hander could not score a single century in international cricket in 2020 and 2021.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik explained how the crowd drives Kohli and its absence during the COVID-19 period played a big role in his extended lean patch.
"Very disarming for a start when you don't play with crowds. It took us sometime when we played in IPL without any crowds, it was very weird. When you know you hit a shot, you feel like you are playing in a domestic game. It very much feels like that, there is nobody around to clap, no sounds. At times, you only hear some claps from the dressing room. It is very weird and it is very hard for people who have played international cricket consistently. I really feel one of Virat Kohli's reasons for him not to have done as well as he generally does during that covid phase is the fact there was no crowd around," Karthik said.
"He is someone who completely gets enamored and you know likes getting pushed by crowds and then the likes of Hardik Pandya, you can keep naming big names from India and other parts of the country as well. For Virat Kohli, I can say that would have definitely played a massive part, just playing to nobody it would feel weird. It is one thing playing to a TV audience, which is great but you don't hear them clapping for you. It is a very different feeling to play in front of no one," he added.
Virat Kohli was the leading run-getter in the 2022 edition of T20 World Cup while he won the Player-of-the-Tournament awards in the 2014 and 2016 editions of the tournament. He is now expected to carry India on his shoulders and take them to the title.