Virat Kohli knows his limitations of not being a big six-hitter, but according to skipper Rohit Sharma, Kohli gave a “perfect example of how to craft an innings without focusing so much on the big-hitting” when the 33-year-old finished unbeaten on 122* off 61 balls against Afghanistan, notching up his maiden T20I ton and his 71st in international cricket, equalling Ricky Ponting’s tally.
Kohli also confirmed that he is going to stick with his tried and tested and proven-successful template of settling in first 10-15 balls before going all out attack, rather than the aggressive, gung-ho batting approach Rohit and other Indian middle-order batters have adopted in the past few months.
Virat Kohli is the leading run-scorer in Asia Cup 2022
In recent months, Rohit Sharma has endorsed the highly intent-filled batting approach. However, that doesn’t suit Kohli’s game – he failed playing attacking shots in England and against Sri Lanka on Tuesday was bowled for a duck trying to slog the pacer.
Against Afghanistan, though, opening the batting, Kohli took his time and started off conservatively to get himself settled before unleashing his array of shots. Kohli found 12 fours and 6 sixes, playing to his strength of hitting boundaries rather than looking for sixes.
“My aim was to always to play all three formats, and I banked on good cricketing shots. I always came to every tournament or series thinking six-hitting is not a big strength of mine. I can [hit sixes] when situation demands, but I’m better at finding gaps and hitting boundaries, so as long as I can hit boundaries, it will still serve the purpose for the team,” Kohli said in an interview with Rohit Sharma in a video for BCCI.
I was desperate to do something that wasn’t my game: Virat Kohli
Kohli revealed that he had also told that coach that he will bat in the formula that had brought him immense success in the past decade, banishing this new approach, which he said made him “desperate” to play a certain kind of game which wasn’t his suit.
After being 59 runs off 40 balls, Kohli bludgeoned the next 63 runs off only 21 balls!
“I told the coaches as well that I’m going to try and hit gaps rather than thinking I’ve to hit sixes to improve strike rates in T20 cricket. That thing I removed from my system in this tournament, and that helped because I was able to come back to my template.
“We can play in many ways, but my role is to play as per the situation and if it demands I have to take the scoring rate higher, I should be able to do it. My aim was if I can be in this zone, I can be relaxed because I know if I’m set for 10-15 balls, I can accelerate. I’m very happy that especially from the team’s point of view, I’m back to being in my template I’ve played for a while, which I was going away from because I was desperate to do something that wasn’t my game,” Kohli explained.
Although India are knocked out of the Asia Cup 2022, Kohli returning to his best is the biggest takeaway for India.
