Virat Kohli has said that even he was “shocked” by him breaking his century drought in the T20I format after the former India skipper raised his 71st international ton, and a first in T20Is, on Thursday in Dubai against Afghanistan in their last Super 4 match in the Asia Cup 2022.
Even though India failed to reach the final of the tournament, Kohli’s return to his best is the biggest positive for the Men In Blue from the continental tournament.
Kohli slashed aside the wait of 1020 days for his 71st international century, his last one coming on November 23, 2019.
He has been in a rut for a long while, and to break out of it in the T20I format – which is unarguably his least suited of the three even surprised the King himself.
“Even I didn’t expect – I myself was shocked – that nobody expected me to score a century in the T20I format after a long time. I was pleasantly surprised, and very grateful and honoured right now,” Kohli said in an interview with skipper Rohit Sharma in a video for the BCCI after the game.
“Yes, it’s a special day for our team; after last game [loss to Sri Lanka] our attitude in this game mattered. Our goal is well known: the T20 World Cup in Australia. And we will learn from our bad matches [in Asia Cup],” he added.
Virat Kohli can break Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 100 centuries
Because skipper Rohit Sharma was rested from this dead rubber against Afghanistan, Virat Kohli opened the batting alongside KL Rahul. After a conservative start, the 33-year-old stepped on the paddle to reach his fifty in the 11th over. From the 14th over, Kohli accelerated like he used to in his heydays going from 60 runs off 41 balls to 100 off 53 balls ending up with 122* off 61. En route to his thunderous knock, the right-hander smashed 12 fours and 6 sixes.
Kohli has now tied with Ricky Ponting for the second-most number of international centuries; only the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is ahead of them with 100 hundreds.
Kohli also revealed how a chat with head coach Rahul Dravid helped him put effort into more specifics such as increasing his strike rate in the middle overs.
“3-4 days back Rahul Dravid had spoken with me about planning the innings while batting first – about improving my strike rate in the middle phase of the innings. So my only goal before the Asia Cup was to help my game improve in regard to the overall team’s point of view,” Kohli said.
The 33-year-old is currently the highest run-scorer in the Asia Cup 2022: Kohli finished the tournament with 276 runs in 5 innings with the help of 2 fifties and a century.
