Virat Kohli: I think In Test cricket I Wasn’t Able To Play With My Tempo And Template

Ahmedabad: Virat Kohli admitted that he wasn’t able to play to his tempo in recent time like he used to do for the past 10 years and had to apply harder in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy that India won 2-1.

Kohli Kohli faced 364 balls in his knock of 186 and scored only 60 runs in boundaries in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, which was also his 28th in the longest format and first since November 2019 in whites.

“I think in Test cricket I wasn’t able to play with my tempo and template that I have played with for the last 10 years for awhile now. So that was the one thing I was trying to do. I felt like I was batting really well from the first innings in Nagpur,” Kohli said after the game ended in a draw.

Kohli endured a painful wait of more than three years to notch his Test century number 28, the knock helping India finish with 571 in reply to Australia’s 480. The visitors were 175/2 with a lead of 84 runs in the second innings when both skippers decided to call it stumps.

Kohli also said he’s not in a space to prove someone wrong. “The expectations that I have for myself as a player are more important to me,” Kohli told the official broadcasters after being adjudged Player of the Match.

“I am not in a space now where I will go out and prove someone wrong. I also need to justify why I am there on the field,” Kohli, who now has 75 international centuries, said. The former India skipper also stated that India had to bat long as they were a batter short.

“We lost Shreyas to injury and were a batter short. So, we decided to play time. We focused on batting long. “We focussed more on batting as long as possible for the team. I did that for periods but not to the capability that I have done in the past.

“From that perspective I was disappointed but there was belief there that I was playing well and if I got an opportunity on a decent wicket then I can make a big one,” he concluded.