Virat Kohli is one of the most decorated batsmen of this generation. No batsman in the world has scored as heavily as him across the three formats in the last decade or so.
While Virat Kohli is now widely regarded as a modern-day great, he has revealed that even he feared for his career when he was trying to find his feet in international cricket. The right-handed batsman made his debut for Team India in 2008, just months after leading India to glory in the Under-19 World Cup.
While he was a highly-rated youngster, he did struggle to make an impact with the bat in his first two years as an international cricketer. During the same phase, he once feared for his career and recently opened up about it.
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Virat Kohli revealed that he feared the worst after scoring only 16 runs in India’s 54-run defeat against Pakistan in the 2009 Champions Trophy. The defeat against the arch-rivals proved costly for the Men in Blue as they bowed out of the tournament at the group stage.
Kohli was not a part of India’s original squad but was called up after Yuvraj Singh incurred a finger injury. In a space of four days, Kohli left for South Africa from Bengaluru and was handed his first appearance in the game against Pakistan. It was also his first ICC match for the senior team.
“I played my first series in Sri Lanka, and then I was left out of the team for a while because I had come into the team in place of Sachin paji, who had a niggle. And then when he came back, there was no space left for me. So I had to wait for my chance again. Then came the Champions Trophy 2009 in South Africa. Yuvi pa got a finger injury, I think he got a fracture or something, and then they called me.
“They used to tell me, keep your suitcase with you, keep your clothes packed and keep your passport on you at all times. I was always a standby, so they called me over. I was in Bangalore, actually. They asked me to fly over immediately. So when I went over, the very next game I played was Pakistan in three days. That was my first India-Pakistan game.
“I think about scored about 16 or something. I tried to hit Shahid Afridi for a six straight down the ground in Centurion, and I got caught. We lost that game. It was an important moment in the game, and my heart was beating so fast throughout that whole innings,” Virat Kohli told Mayanti Langer in the RCB podcast.
I’ve just messed it up: Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli said that he was struggling to process the entire episode and the failure with the bat against Pakistan made things worse for him. The former India skipper recalled that he could not sleep the entire night after the game and kept looking at the ceiling while fearing the worst.
“I just could not process everything that happened within a span of four days. And I remember us losing that game because it was a big loss. I just could not sleep. I stayed awake until five in the morning, staring at the ceiling. I was like, “This is it.”
“I’ve been called after a year, and I’ve just messed it up. I don’t know how this is going to shape up. I had a lot of moments like that where I really, really doubted myself and had to again kind of recalibrate and find a way to slowly build up again and just try to focus on what is in front of me and what might go wrong in whatever amount of time,” said Kohli.
Well, Kohli has made amends for that failure in style and boasts a stunning record against Pakistan. The batting superstar has scored 778 runs in 17 ODI innings, including 4 centuries against the Men in Green. In T20Is, he has hit 492 runs in 11 innings with the help of 5 fifties.