NEW DELHI: Speaking candidly about his match-winning 82nd international century against Pakistan, India’s batting virtuoso Virat Kohli explained that his favorite cover drive shot puts him in a “catch 22” situation because it has been his weakness lately, but he has also scored a lot of runs with it.
In Sunday’s ICC Champions Trophy encounter against bitter rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium, Kohli reached 14,000 runs in one-day international cricket.
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“It’s a ‘catch-22’. I mean, it’s kind of been my weakness as well over the years, but I’ve scored a lot of runs on that shot. I think today was just about backing my shots and I think the first couple of boundaries I got were cover drives on the rise, so I really had to just let it go a little bit and take a bit of risk and follow through with my shots, because when I hit that kind of shots, then I feel in control when I bat out there, so it was a good innings for me personally and it was a great team win,” the former India skipper said in a video posted by BCCI on their official X handle.
The veteran cricketer shared his thoughts about batting at number three later in the video, stating that his primary goal is always to put his team in the winning position.
“One thing that I’ve always thought of batting at three is to minimize risk and make sure that I put my team in a winning position and if you have a chance to finish off the game in a chase, obviously, that’s much better and I always preferred that kind of a situation, but yeah, my role over the years has remained the same, whatever the demand of the game, I put my head down and try to do that,” the 36-year-old former captain added.
Kohli also shared his thoughts on playing archrivals Pakistan.
“The occasion is a bit more lively when you play against Pakistan, especially in this region because you have equal number of fans from both countries, yeah, it was a great day for us as a team and for me personally as well,” Kohli concluded.
Kohli smashed an undefeated 100 runs off 111 balls, studded with seven fours. India overhauled Pakistan’s total of 241 thanks to his innings, which came at a strike rate of 90.09. This was Kohli’s first century in the ICC Champions Trophy.
