Indian skipper Virat Kohli has recently recalled a disastrous tour of England in 2014 after which he was just thinking he should not play Test cricket, but his hard work, a change in mindset, and a phone call with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar helped him to become “absolutely fearless”.
Kohli, who is currently leading India in the five-match Test series against England, endured a terrible tour of England in 2014, registering a total of 134 runs in 5 Tests with scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6, and 20 in five Tests.
However, the right-hander roared back to his form in Australia after his failure in England as he amassed 692 runs in the Test series, thanks to the help of Tendulkar and his own, saying he visualized how he would face former speedster Mitchell Johnson and others during his workout sessions at that time.
Kohli told Sky Sports in an interview that was aired on Sony Six: “You know that playing at this level over a long period of time, you tend to go into a space where you become a bit insecure, fearful, you want to prove to people how good you are in different conditions.”
He added, “To be honest before that Australia tour, I was treating every foreign tour like, more like an engineering exam, that I have to pass somehow and I have to show people that I can play at this level.”
The skipper also said he realized who was with him and who wasn’t after his terrible tour of England in 2014 and before the Australia tour and he decided to keep working hard regardless of those people.
Kohli remembered, “There I realized that once you are down and out, there was hardly anyone who came to help me, there was hardly anyone who was looking towards me and saying listen let’s work together and you know try to get your game up to speed, everyone was just going after me left, right and center. So, I was like I am playing to prove these people wrong, for what, I have got nothing to do with them, they literally have nothing to contribute in my life.”
He further explained, “So, I went back home, I was down for quite a bit, the great thing that happened at that stage was, I realized who is with me, who’s not, things were filtered to an extent that I just got so relaxed when I went back home, I was like okay. I have hit a rock bottom now, no one believes in me, everyone thinks I should not be playing Test cricket, so what can I do, I can just work hard as I can.”
On how he trained himself during the tough time of his career, the India captain recalled: “I went into a bubble, I went to Bombay as well, I called Sachin Tendulkar, I asked for his help, I said I want to get my game right, I want to understand what it is like to score runs at this level, my mindset was simple.”
The dashing batsman added, “I went back home I told myself, listen you can’t play Test cricket to show people that you can play in England, Australia and not get out. If you don’t score it is not a point, you play this game to make your team win. So my mindset was I am going to go to Australia and how I am going to score runs against these guys. I wasn’t going out there to survive, and from the time I got back home till the Australia tour, I promise you I was visualizing every day, when I was working out in the gym, that I am hitting Mitchell Johnson, I am hitting these guys all over the park.”
He signed off by saying, “Those things came to life eventually because I convinced myself to an extent, when I went there I was absolutely fearless and things just started flowing.”
(With PTI Inputs)
