Not in a space where I’ll go out and prove someone wrong: Virat Kohli | Cricket News

NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli has achieved almost everything in cricket a player aspires to, but his century-old drought in test cricket place him in a place where he felt the need to justify his place on the field.
Kohli got rid of the monkey after ending a 1205-day Test century hiatus with his 186-run marathon against Australia in the fourth and final Test against Australia in Ahmedabad.
The former India skipper’s 28th Test ton helped India post 571 in response to Australia’s 480 as the game ended in a draw. India won the series of four matches 2-1 and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The expectations I have for myself as a player are more important to me,” Kohli told official broadcasters after being voted player of the game.
“I’m not in a space now where I’m going to go out and prove someone wrong. I also have to justify why I’m there on the pitch,” said Kohli, who now has 75 international centuries.

“I think in Test cricket I wasn’t able to play with my tempo and pattern that I’ve been playing with for 10 years for a while now. So that was the only thing I was trying to do. I felt like I was hit really well from the first round in Nagpur.”
Kohli admitted it wasn’t his in the Test format, so he had to apply himself harder. Kohli faced 364 balls in his 186 shot and scored just 60 runs inbounds.
It was a deliberate ploy as India had a short hitter in their XI after Shreyas Iyer retired due to a back injury.
“We lost Shreyas to injury and we were missing a hitter, so we decided to play some time. We focused on the long stick.
“We focused more on the stick for as long as possible for the team. I’ve done that for periods, but not with the ability I’ve done in the past.
“From that point of view, I was disappointed, but it was believed that I was playing well and if I had an opportunity at a decent wicket, I could make a big one,” he concluded.
(With PTI inputs)

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