Greatness is defined not just by the milestones achieved but also by how one bounces back from their lowest. Virat Kohli had hit his ultimate low in 2022. Amid the long century-less stretch in international cricket starting late 2019, the 33-year-old had given up his captaincy roles in all formats following a controversy with then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. But Kohli has moved on and returned to his best with a quite a couple of centuries in the last 12 months. And as the former India skipper stands on the verge of guiding the team to a historic WTC title win, he lifted the lid on those “off-field complications” with MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma references.
Kohli stands the way of Australia and the prestigious ICC Test Championship Mace at The Oval. On a well-set 44, Kohli remains India's hope of taking the side to a historic chase of 444. India still stand 280 runs short of the mark with seven wickets in hand.
Ahead of the start of Day 5 in London, Kohli spoke to ICC on how he has moved on from those off-field issues of last year and that he wants to achieve the same for India under Rohit's captaincy as he did under Dhoni.
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“I'm in a very happy place. Lots happened over the last couple of years. Lots of stuff off the field. Stuff that over a long period of time in a long career tends to happen mostly with everyone, complication of the sport playing at the highest level. But I feel I am playing my best cricket again and I'm happy being out there with the bat in my hand and doing the job for the team which I take a lot of pride in doing in firstly under MS Dhoni's captaincy then my own captaincy and now under Rohit Sharma. My responsibility as a batter has remained the same,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“I'm in a very happy place. Lots happened over the last couple of years. Lots of stuff off the field. Stuff that over a long period of time in a long career tends to happen mostly with everyone, complication of the sport playing at the highest level. But I feel I am playing my best cricket again and I'm happy being out there with the bat in my hand and doing the job for the team which I take a lot of pride in doing in firstly under MS Dhoni's captaincy then my own captaincy and now under Rohit Sharma. My responsibility as a batter has remained the same,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The infamous issue pertaining to Kohli's laedership roles began shortly after India's forgettable 2021 T20 World Cup campaign. Kohli had stepped down from T20I captaincy at the end of the tournament but BCCI selectors later removed him from ODI leadership role as well. The veteran India batter claimed that there was no prior discussion on it while the BCCI officials contradicted the statement, leading to a war of words. Kohli later relinquished his Test captaincy role as well in January 2022 following which Rohit was named as the all-format skipper.