Virat Kohli: What surprised me was my 60s became failures, which was very shocking for me

Kohli, who last scored a century back in November 2019, scored an unbeaten 122 off 61 balls in the Asia Cup Super 4 clash in Dubai while a few current and former players had questioned Kohli’s place in the team at the mega event.

Over the past few months, Virat Kohli was struggling with the bat, but his performance in the Asia Cup has shut up all the detractors. Kohli, who last scored a century back in November 2019, scored an unbeaten 122 off 61 balls in the Asia Cup Super 4 clash in Dubai. 

Before the Asia Cup, a few current and former players had questioned Kohli’s place in the team at the mega event.

During the post-match presentation, Kohli, who won the man of the match for his outstanding knock, said he was “shocked” how his knocks in the 50s and 60s were labeled as “failures” during the time he was not scoring tons.

“What surprised me was my 60s became failures, which was very shocking for me. I was batting pretty well and contributing, but it didn’t seem to be good enough,”

Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

“But as I said, God has blessed me with a lot of good times in the past, and that’s why I’m in this position where these things can be spoken about. I have no shame in admitting that God is blessing us all with everything in our destiny, we just have to work hard,”

said Kohli.

Kohli revealed that starting afresh after taking a break from the game assisted him to rediscover his lost magic.

“I went back to the drawing board, came back fresh, came back excited. The team management has also had great communication with me through these times, they’ve kept my perspective right,”

the former skipper said.

“When I came back there was not much information coming my way, they just said ‘you bat and enjoy yourself. So it was just a matter of getting back into the space of enjoyment.”

“I have had many suggestions, a lot of advice has come my way. People were telling me I was doing this wrong, that wrong, I picked out all the videos from the best times I had. It was the same initial movement, same approach towards the ball and it was just what was going on inside my head I wasn’t able to explain it to anyone,”

Kohli said about finding back his mojo.

“At the end of the day you know as an individual where you stand, and what you have to do for your journey, and people will have their opinions. But they cannot feel what you’re feeling. I have felt these last few months in a very different way, which is a very special time in my life. I’m very grateful for that time, my perspective had to change for me to move forward in cricket,”

he added.