India's star Virat Kohli ended a wait for a three-figure mark in test cricket when he smashed his 28th hundred in the fourth match of the Border Gavaskar series. Kohli led India's charge to Australia's imposing 480-run total with a sedate knock on a comatose pitch as India scored 571. The former Indian captain got to his test ton after 41 innings and missed out on a well-deserved double ton as he got out on 186.
The Indian star has now opened up on his innings and the expectations put on him to get a test hundred. When asked by head coach Rahul Dravid whether not breaching the 100-run mark was coming into his mind, Kohli stated that he let the complications get to him due to his shortcomings. "Honestly, I've let the complications grow on me a bit because of my shortcomings. The desperation to get to the three-figure mark is something that can grow on you as a batsman. I let that happen to me to a certain extent," Kohli said.
Kohli talks about performing for the team
The 34-year-old also stated that he always wanted to play longer for the team and as that was eating him up. "But a flip side to it is, I'm not a guy who is happy with 40-45. I take a lot of pride in performing for the team. It's not like when Virat Kohli should stand out. When I'm batting on 40, I know I can get a 150. That was eating me up a lot," Kohli said.
"Why am I not able to get that big score for the team? Because I took pride in the fact that when the team needed me, I stood up, scoring in difficult conditions. The fact that I wasn't able to do that, was bothering me," he added.
Kohli talks about big expectations on him
He also stated how tough it was to face expectations. "If I've to be brutally honest, it does become a little difficult as the moment you step out of the hotel room, right from the guy outside, to the guy in the lift, the bus driver everyone is saying 'we want a hundred'. "So, it does play on your mind all the time but that's also the beauty of playing for so long to have these complications come up and overcome these challenges," Kohli said.
Kohli played a sedate knock on a dull pitch that offered almost nothing to the bowlers and little to the fast scoring rate. He said that adapting to different match conditions is important and this is what he did in Ahmedabad. "I don’t think you can always play in the same way all the time. You need to adapt according to the conditions in front of you. I think this is one of the main reasons why I have been able to play all formats of games for so long. The adaptability comes from knowing that physically I can do things in many different ways," he said.
