Team India star batsman Virat Kohli played a memorable knock against Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2022. Just months before that magical night in Melbourne, critics had their fingers pointed at Virat Kohli, questioning his very place in the Indian T20I side.
Speaking at a PUMA event, Kohli recalled that knock in Melbourne and explained that he was under so much pressure that he paid no heed to head coach Rahul Dravid’s advice at break.
“I still can’t make any sense of it. That’s a very honest admission. And a lot of people have tried to ask me what were you thinking, how did you plan and I have no answers. The fact of the matter is that I was so much under pressure that my mind had shut off completely by the 12th or 13th over.
“I was going through what I was going through, then I came back in Asia Cup and I was playing well and I felt like wow I’m ready to play to play in this World Cup. At the 10th over mark, we were 31 for 4 and I had just ran Axar out. I was 12 off 25, or something. I remember in the break, Rahul bhai came to me and I don’t remember what he said. I swear and I even told him this as well. I told him, ‘I have no idea what you told me in that break because I was zoned out’,” he said.
The veteran India batter admitted that with his mind completely shutting down, his instincts had taken over during that knock of ages.
“My mind was spinning so fast…I was like this is worse that it was before. I had spiralled down so far down that there is no comeback from here and that was my honest feeling at the halfway mark. That is when my instinct took over. So when I stopped thinking and planning, whatever God-given talent I have that came to the surface and then I felt like something higher was guiding me. I can’t claim any of that. I was trying to do it before as well but it wasn’t working. The lesson for me was stop using your mind so much because it actually pushes you away from real magic. What happened that night, I can never explain it and it won’t happen ever again.”