MUMBAI: Royal Challengers Bangalore’s star batter Virat Kohli has not had the best of IPL seasons. However, that has not deterred his spirit. The former RCB captain opens up on his current form and how he maintains a positive frame of mind.
Speaking on the Star Sports show ‘Inside RCB’, Kohli opened up on his current frame of mind and how he coped with such a dip in form. “My experiences are sacred to me. Whatever I have experienced in this phase or in the past as well, one thing I can vouch for is that I have never valued myself more as a person. Because of what I’m experiencing now that there is a big sense of the identity that’s created by the world for you, which is far more different and so far away from the reality of you as a human being. So, what I’m experiencing now is that I am valuing myself and I care for my own well-being way more I would have in the past.”
I’m actually in the happiest phase of my life. I am not finding any self-worth or value in what I do on the field. I’m way past that phase. This is a phase of evolution for me. Not to say that I don’t have the same drive, my drive will never die down. The day my drive goes away, I’ll not be playing this game.
—Virat Kohli, cricketer
“But to understand that somethings are not controllable, the only controllable you have are things that you can work towards, which is working hard on the field and in life as well, and from that point of view, I feel that I am in the most balanced space that I have ever been and I am happy with who I am and how I am leading my life. I am not finding any source of encouragement or disappointment by what happens on the field. So, this has not been about myself, this is about the fact that I have not contributed to my team’s cause as much as I would have wanted to or I pride myself to, and that is something that always disappoints me, not what I do as an individual. It’s because I don’t want to let my team down,” he added.
Former Team India skipper Kohli has been out of form for quite a while now. After being retained by RCB ahead of the mega auctions of IPL 2022, Kohli has scored only 236 in 13 matches, with an average of 19.67 and a strike rate of 113.46.
Virat Kohli also talked about his transition from a captain to a player, “To be honest, it’s different. I won’t say it’s hard because, it’s something that you’re involved in regularly. So, the good thing is that my relationship with Faf has always been good. We also have a leadership group in the team where we all share our inputs. Even on the field, when Faf is on the outfield and I am inside, I make sure to look after the fielding angles and the placement, so he’s given me the liberty to adjust wherever I feel that there’s a need, but always keeping him in the loop obviously. So, it’s been a different way to look at the game, but because I’ve done it so much in the past, it’s not something that I don’t know how to do.”
“It is just different at this moment and something that obviously came as second nature to me when I played under MS and honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed playing in that space as well where I was looked at as a responsible player in the team and I could contribute in many ways and obviously give my inputs to the captain as well. That really excited me whenever I stepped onto the field which is the case this time as well,” he pointed.
RCB square off with table-toppers Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 on Thursday for a spot in the playoffs. (ANI)