Ahead of the Asia Cup 2022, Afghanistan’s star spinner Rashid Khan has shared a fascinating story to highlight why Virat Kohli is one of the most successful cricketers of the modern era.
Rashid revealed that he was left stunned by Kohli’s preparations on the eve of an IPL 2022 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans.
Rashid, who turned up for GT in this year’s IPL, said the RCB batter was practising in the nets for about two and half hours even after the rest of the players had finished their training session.
"During the IPL, we had a match the next day against RCB. In the nets, I was just counting the time Virat was out there. To be honest, he batted for two and half hours. Main aisa hairan hua (I was so shocked). Our nets were finished and still, he was there batting. The next day he scored around 70 against us. His mindset is very positive," Rashid told sports presenter Sawera Pasha ahead of the Asia Cup.
It was a must-win game for RCB and Kohli stood tall for his side, smashing a classy 73 off 54 balls while successfully chasing GT’s target of 169. His knock was studded with 8 fours and 2 maximums. Interestingly, both his sixes came against Rashid Khan.
However, Kohli had an underwhelming IPL 2022 campaign with the bat. He played 16 innings for RCB, amassing just 341 runs at an average of 22.73 and a strike rate of 115.98 with only two half-centuries.
Following the IPL 2022 season, Kohli travelled to England but he failed in all the games, including the Edgbaston Test. Since then, he has been rested and will return to the Indian squad for the upcoming Asia Cup, slated to get underway on August 27.
According to Rashid, however, Virat Kohli is not out of form. He pointed out it is not that the former India skipper has not scored for long, instead, he has been making useful contributions to the side.
"Jab wo khelta hai toh aise shots khelta hai ki aap bologe ki bilkul out of form nahi hai. Main toh yahi bolunga that he is not out-of-form. (When he bats, he plays such wonderful shots that to me, he doesn't appear to be out-of-form at all). The expectations are much more. People want him to score a hundred every second game. If you look at his Test match innings, he has got through the tough time, batted well, then somehow he has gotten out for 50 or 60 or 70. If there was any other normal batter then everyone would have said that he is in form but with Virat the expectations are such that they only want centuries," Rashid said.
"Jitna meri usse baat hui hai. Uske mind mein kabhi aya nahi ki log kya kahenge ya unki expectations kya hai. (Whenever I have had a word with him he has made it clear that people's expectations don't really bother him) The way that he prepares, I think it is an example for all of us. We tend to get motivated and put in more effort after watching him practice. A certain time comes in your career when whatever you try, doesn't work. But we as fans, want him to score big runs and I'm sure the hundreds will also come," he added.
