I’ve got a challenge at this stage of my career – Virat Kohli on his aggressive blueprint against West Indies
Virat Kohli unlocked a new milestone and one of the greatest ones in cricketing history as he joined Sachin Tendulkar in the black swan club of batters who have scored over 15,000 ODI runs.
Kohli essayed an unbeaten knock of 139 runs from just 88 balls as India chased down 295 with 50 balls to spare.
Talking in a post-match interview, Kohli opened up on the crude emotions of joining the iconic 15,000-run club while also shedding light on his consistency. Kohli also reflected on the fact how being in the right headspace allows him t play freely.
Reflecting on the emotions of scaling the new milestone, Kohli said, “Well, my focus has never really been on these milestones, so to say. It's just understanding the situation along the course of just doing the job for the team, whatever. Achievements come along. Obviously, I feel very grateful and very blessed to be in this position for having played for so long.”
He further added, “And yeah, just keeping my head down, working hard, and thanking God for everything that I've been blessed with and the opportunities that I've gotten in my life to be where I am. We have a very blessed life and a blessed journey because so many people want to be here, but we get to be the lucky ones. So, we better put our head down and just work hard every day of our lives.”
Explaining his consistency, Kohli stated, “Yeah, I think just the understanding of the game firstly, also at the stage that I'm at, you know, just keeping myself physically very fit, because the game's more or less in the mind. I've never been a guy who practiced a lot, even when I was playing all three formats, as you know. So it's just for me about staying mentally fresh, staying in the present moment and just expressing myself really out there to play in a certain way, get used to this template more often. I've got a challenge at this stage of my career to kind of up the ante and play a gear or two higher, and yeah, that was exciting for me to work on.”
He concluded by saying, “Again, it excites you when you have to unlock a new version at this stage of your career, which will eventually help any team that you play for, be it playing for India or in the IPL. It's really helped me a lot to play with a free mind, and I think that's what's working for me. But I think to follow a free mind, you need a fit body. So for me it works the other way around. I stay physically fit and then I'm able to visualize the game in the way that I want to play, which allows me the best chance to go out there and execute in the way that I did tonight.”
