Going to England in 2018 and as captain and player made the difference, admits Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli was heavily criticized for his performance in England in 2014
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India captain Virat Kohli has admitted that the major difference between his 2014 and 2018 visits to England is the fact that in the latter tour he went as a captain and player both. In July 2014, India under the captaincy of MS Dhoni had toured England and lost the 5-match series 3-1.
Ahead of Indiaâs tour of England in 2014, Virat Kohli had played 24 Test matches amassing 1721 runs at 46.51 since his debut in 2011. However, with England winning the five-match homes series 3-1, Kohli could only manage scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0,7, 6 and 20 across 10 innings at an average of 13.50. In a recent conversation with Mayank Agarwal on bcci.tv, Kohli admitted that one series negated all his efforts for the past years in the Indian cricket team. However, Kohli also revealed that he did not get swayed by all the criticism and worked on his own game.
âWell, to be honest, Mayank, I never really paid attention to these things what people perceive me as after 2014. Obviously it did trouble me since all my credibility as a player went away in one month or so. So you do feel like, when you know youâre good enough but youâre focussing too much on what people are saying about you, that can disappoint you. So I went through that journey of my own. I stopped focusing on what people had to say about me. I just went on in my own little bubble, in my own zone, preparing myself and kept working on my game,â Kohli said, according to bcci.tv.
Kohli then returned to England only in 2018 and even though India lost the series by 4-1, the India skipper ended up being the highest run-scorer in the series with 593 runs at 59.30. Kohli further admitted the real difference between the 2014 and 2018 tours was the fact that the second he went, he went as a captain and player both so the teamâs performance was his priority. Even though India lost the series in England, they went on to win in Australia and Kohli credited the teamâs experience in England that led to their victory down under.
âThe great thing about 2018 was I went as a captain and player, both. So that whole feeling wasnât there, just as a player. I knew that conditions are going to be different and I want to lead from the front and want to lead in performances from the front and hence I was nervous before the first game that I want to be able to start well. That was the nervousness, not that 2014 happened then now 2018 is my chance for redemption or something like that. It wasnât my mindset at all. I wouldâve been pretty happy in contributing whatever I could to make the team win,â Kohli added.
âThe fact that I was able to do that for the team, and if we really look back to that series the first three Tests were pretty tight, even the 4th Test in Southampton. We lost the series in, you know, bad wicket and the bat wicket was pretty bad. It wasnât like there was a 60-40 balance the bad stuff went 80-20 but otherwise, it was 50-50, sometimes even we were 60-40. But then that very bad wicket of a phase lost us the series. We werenât too heartbroken about that series, to be honest, because we really really wanted compete and you know that the England team knew that weâre here to get the result and not just to show that we can play there. So it was sort of a very confidence boosting series for us as a team. Then we went on to win in Australia after that. So yeah from that series we learned quite a bit that we can do it. We didnât lose hope. So, in that pov, it was a more balanced series.â
