During the recently held Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, star India batter Virat Kohli ended over three-year wait for a Test century with a superb 186 in the fourth match in Ahmedabad.
It was the 28th hundred of Virat’s Test career and his 75th in international cricket. After reaching the three-figure mark, Kohli looked more relieved than delighted as he took out his wedding ring and kissed it to celebrate the end of the long wait for the Test century.
"So, when I made the hundred and converted it into a big one, that gave me a sense of calmness, relaxation, and excitement again. You kind of become comfortable with your game, and your thinking, and your heart is not rising before the next practice session. You eventually want to be in such a space. And that particular hundred gave me a grounded feeling back. Just from a cricketing perspective. In life, I was pretty happy and relaxed. But when playing also, you want to be in that space as much as possible," Kohli said in a chat with AB de Villiers on the latter's YouTube show.
Virat Kohli’s love for Test cricket is not a secret. No wonder, he got a sense of fulfillment after smashing a hundred in the Ahmedabad Test.
Before the fourth Test against Australia, Kohli scored his last century in the longest format way back in November 2019 while he had gone without a fifty-plus score in his last 15 Test innings.
"I and AB have been in touch for a while. He knows how much I value Test cricket. Even though, I had performed in T20Is again and scored ODI centuries and all that stuff, I always felt that white-ball cricket, for me, was more of a thing where if you go in with the right frame of mind on a particular day or for a certain period of time, you can get past the hurdles,” Kohli stated.
"But even though we played the Test on a wicket that is not offering too much to the bowlers, you still have to bat for good 7-8 hours sometimes, because they (Australia) are that patient with their fields and they could go defensive. It was just testing me constantly. That is something that I have always cherished as a cricketer..
"I was getting decent scores, but if you ask me if I was happy with what I was doing. I wasn't. I pride myself in performing for the team to the best of my ability, I certainly wasn't doing that enough. I wanted to score big runs, that's something that always propelled me, whether it was at home or away. I was doing that to a certain extent. But I was not having the same kind of impact that I had before," he further remarked.
Virat Kohli is currently featuring in the three-match ODI series against Australia. He registered scores of 4 and 31 in the first two ODIs and now will be seen in action in the series-decider at Chepauk on Wednesday (March 22).
