Virat Kohli admitted that he was pleasantly surprised that he was able to end his century drought by bringing up his first T20I hundred on Thursday against Afghanistan.
Kohli scored a magnificent 122 runs off 61 balls as India posted 212 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke the back of the Afghanistan batting order and they ended up scoring just 111 runs and giving India a 101-run win on the day.
Speaking to Rohit Sharma in a video on BCCI’s official website, the star batter first said it was a special day for the team as they wanted to see the attitude players would show after their last two matches. He said that the main aim for India is the T20 World Cup.
“It was a special day for us as a team. We talked after the last game about the attitude we will have for this one, because that will matter the most for us. This tournament was needed for us. We got the exposure to the knockout stages and pressure. Everyone knows what our goal is. It is the World Cup in Australia. We are improving for that and we will learn from our experience. Some of the matches for us weren’t good,” said Kohli.
Kohli also opened up on how the communication from the team management was clear and let him bat freely. The 33-year-old said that his main goal was to improve on things from the team’s point of view.
“For me personally, since I came back into the team. I got a big break after a long time when I didn’t even touch the bat. So there were a lot of things that came into perspective. After that, the communication from you guys and the team management was clear. It was just let me bat. For me, that was important. The space that you guys afforded me, I felt very relaxed during this phase and when I came back, I was excited to see how I can contribute to the team, said Kohli.
The 33-year-old then said that he had to adopt an aggressive style since the team’s main aim is the upcoming T20 World Cup.
“I had to play in this way because our aim is the World Cup. So if I play well, then I can contribute more to the team. So these were the plans. When I talked to Rahul Dravid, he told me about how I can improve while batting first, improve my strike-rate during the middle phases. So my main goal was, to look at things I need to improve from the team’s point of view and try to work on them during the Asia Cup,” said Kohli.
The star batter then admitted that he didn’t expect to break his century duck by scoring a hundred in T20Is and was pleasantly surprised with his knock.
“I didn’t expect it myself and I was shocked that I would score a century first in this format. I was pleasantly surprised and I feel very grateful and honoured right now,” said Kohli.
— ENDS —