Former India captain Virat Kohli said adaptability to different conditions is his key to success and it is one of the reasons why he has been able to thrive in all forms of the game over the years. Kohli had a resurgence in the past six months or so after almost three years of a barren patch with the bat.
The right-hander first scored his maiden century in T20Is against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup 2022 and then scored his first ODI century since 2019 against Bangladesh and continued his good form against New Zealand in the subsequent series as well.
However, questions were still there about his form with the bat in Test format, where he has not scored a fifty since January 2022 and a century since November 2019.
He continued to struggle in England last year and despite a break helping him gain form after that tour, he couldn’t do much in the two Tests against Bangladesh. He looked good in the first three Tests against Australia, but couldn’t score a fifty.
But everything came to a head in the final Test in Ahmedabad, where Kohli batted with determination and grit and scored a brilliant 186 runs, his 28th Test ton and 75th score over 100 in international cricket.
“No, I don’t think you can always play in the same way all the time. You need to adjust according to the conditions there are in front of you. I think this is one of the main reasons why I have been able to play all formats of games for so long. The adaptability comes from knowing that physically I can do things in many different ways,” Virat Kohli told Rahul Dravid during their chat on BCCI.TV.
He said: “Mentally I can prepare to play a certain way or play in another way but if my body won’t support it then I will be found out. So an example would be even in this Test match in these conditions I back myself to run six doubles in an over for a span of six-seven overs if the scoring rate needs to be up.”
Virat Kohli was amazing in the ODIs and T20Is, especially his knock against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, where he won the game for India single-handedly in one of the all-time great knocks in the format. Not only this, but he ended up as the highest run-getter in the tournament as well.
“It’s not necessary that I would look to clear deep mid-wicket and that is my only option because that brings in the risk as well. That’s why I am able to bat in different situations and bat differently in different conditions because I was able to take ones and twos, and I could do the power-hitting as well.
For that, you need to have all-round fitness and that is something you need to work on every day. It is not something that can happen over the period of two or three months,” Kohli added.
Kohli said even if conditions are challenging, he would always play according to the situation and will never throw away his wicket.
“If the conditions are challenging and the run-scoring is not ideal, I wouldn’t want to play a bad shot and get out when the team needs me the most. So I always felt like how can I prepare better? How can I find more ways to help my team win the game but in a way that situation demands me to not in a way I preferred to do it,” he said.
India coach Rahul Dravid lauded Virat Kohli for his determination and called him a team player.
“What a team player you are. According to me playing according to the situation and developing the skills knowing that the team would be put in different situations and challenging yourself. You could have stepped out and hit the six any time you would have wanted, but you realised what the team wanted and played according to that situation. That’s a sign of an absolute champion cricketer,” said Dravid.
(BCCI inputs)
