Asia Cup 2022: “You cannot run this far without having the ability to counter situations” - Virat Kohli opens up on poor form
Team India batter Virat Kohli has asserted that he knows where his game stands, adding that he has had a successful international career because of his ability to counter various situations and challenges.
The former India captain has been in the news due to his lack of form, which has stretched for some time now. He recently completed 1000 days without scoring a single international hundred. The 33-year-old was rested for India’s white-ball tours of the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
He will be making a comeback to international cricket with the Asia Cup in the UAE. The Men in Blue will begin their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan in Dubai on August 28. This match will be Kohli’s 100th T20I. Speaking ahead of the tournament, he downplayed concerns over his form. The batter said on the Star Sports show "Game Plan":
“I know where my game stands and you cannot run this far in your international career without having the ability to counter situations and counter conditions and counter different kinds of bowling.
"So, this for me, is an easier phase to process, but I don't want to put this phase behind me. I want to learn from it and I want to understand what are the core values that I have, as a sportsperson and as a human being."
Check out the updated list of most runs in Asia Cup 2022 on Sportskeeda.
The man with 70 international hundreds added that he is confident of performing consistently once he overcomes the current rut. He stated:
“As long as I'm ticking those boxes, I know there are ups and downs, and when I come out of this phase, I know how consistent I can be. My experiences are sacred to me. Whatever I have experienced in this phase or in the past, as well one thing that I can vouch for, is that I have never valued myself more as a person.”
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Kohli’s previous international assignment was the tour of England. He had a wretched time, managing a top score of 20 from six international innings across formats.
“I know that I'm batting well, which wasn't the case in England” - Virat Kohli
Player of the tournament so far in Asia Cup 🤩🏏
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During the interaction, Kohli also opened up on his mental approach and how he has been preparing for Asia Cup 2022. Comparing his current woes with the 2014 England tour, he pointed out that, unlike the latter, there has been no pattern to his recent struggles.
The right-handed batter explained:
“What happened in England was a pattern, so something that I could work on and something that I had to kind of overcome. Right now, as you rightly mentioned, there is nothing that you can point out saying that the problem is happening here.
"So, that for me, is actually an easier thing to process because I know that I'm batting well and at times, when I start feeling that rhythm back, then I know that I'm batting well."
He added:
“So, that for me is not an issue, which wasn't the case in England; I didn't feel like I was batting well at all. So, I had to work hard on one thing that could be exposed again and again which I overcame; right now this is not the case.”
Kohli managed only 134 runs in 10 innings during the 2014 Test series in England. He returned in 2018 and hammered 593 runs in 10 innings, with two hundreds and three fifties.