Me and KL are both conventional cricketers – Virat Kohli

It was the 77th international century for Virat Kohli, who looked in fine touch against the formidable Pakistan pace battery, negotiating the seam and bounce without breaking a sweat. Kohli looked at his dominating best as he racked up his 47th ODI ton, effortlessly smashing the Pakistan bowlers out of the park.

He brought up his century with a push against Shaheen Shah Afridi, a moment that was downright poetic from the former Indian captain. On reaching the milestone, he leapt up from the ground, landed a fist-pump in the air to probably emote what that century meant to him. This was another swashbuckling knock from Virat against Pakistan that extended his rich vein of form to a fine chapter of batting display.

Awarded the Player of the Match award for his defining knock, Kohli spoke at length at the post-match conference in a detailed insight into all the aspects that the fans wanted to hear from their favourite cricketer.

He started the interview by stating, “I was going to ask you to keep the interview short, I'm very tired. I'm always prepared to help the team in different ways. Today, KL got a great start and my job was just to rotate strike. I take a lot of pride in trying to push for easy runs, pushing for a double is as easy as they come.”

The reverse ramp shot played by Kohli made the commentators and fans go gaga and VK ensured that he was shedding some light on that. He said, “Because I crossed the 100, there was a bit of respect for that shot. I don't play shots like that and I looked very bad playing it.”

Talking about the partnership between him and Rahul, Kohli stated, “Me and KL are both conventional cricketers, we don't try fancy stuff but we can get a lot of purchase through good cricket shots. Great partnership and good signs for Indian cricket. Very happy for him to come back to ODI cricket in that manner.”

Virat concluded by saying, “I was pushing for those runs and happy for it, but I was thinking I need to play at 3 pm tomorrow. Luckily, we are Test players, I've played over a 100 Tests so I know how to come back and play the next day. It was really humid out there, I'm 35 in November so I need to be taking care of that recovery as well (chuckles). A big shout out to the groundsmen from my side, I think they did a fabulous job.”