Rohit Shastri believes that the lean phase worked well for Virat Kohli after he equaled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most ODIs at the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
Shastri hailed Kohli's renewed hunger after he smashed his 49th ODI hundred during Team India's 243-run win over South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Ever since Kohli found his mojo back at the Asia Cup 2022, the former Indian captain has been scoring consistently.
Kohli has so far scored 1155 runs in ODIs, including 5 hundreds, in 2023. He is the second-highest run-getter in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023, with 543 runs in 8 innings.
Meanwhile, Shastri said that Kohli is composed and soaks up pressure wonderfully after coming out of the tough phase.
Ravi Shastri told Star Sports: “You know this game has a humbling effect on you. It teaches you a lot. It teaches you a lot of qualities that you can use in your everyday life apart from building your character. What it taught him was 'you've got to bury your ego at times'. Virat Kohli was on a run, he was getting hundreds as if he was going to buy a new t-shirt in a store every day.”
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The former coach continued, “But then, there comes a time when certain things creep into your game. You get a little overconfident, you think you can dominate any bowler or the conditions and then you go through a patch where you don't get runs and then it adds up and adds up.”
Shastri also explained how playing risk-free cricket has helped Kohli to find his form back.
The former Indian captain said, “What happens then is, that you have to go back to the very basics, start from scratch. Go back and see the innings, how you got those hundreds -- which was a lot of running between wickets, a lot of hits along the ground, not the big shots, and a few calculated risks.”
He signed off by saying, “And he went and did all that. And you can see the difference now, even in his body language and composure, his calmness at the crease, his ability to soak pressure. He is not like a cat on a hot tin roof when he comes out to bat now.
He is calm, he is composed and soaks pressure wonderfully well. He bides his time, that is so important. That experience that he has of scoring hundreds can't be bought in the market.”
(With PTI/IANS Inputs)
