edited by: Aditya Maheshwari
Last Update: February 26, 2023, 17:42 IST
AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli share a great friendship (Twitter Image)
Virat Kohli had a forgettable tour of England in 2014 where he scored just 134 runs in 10 innings.
master of batting Virat Kohli recalled how a chat with the legendary AB de Villiers before the 2018 tour of England helped him overcome the ghosts of the past. Kohli had a tour of England in 2014 to forget where he scored just 134 runs in 10 innings. The experienced fast bowler struggled badly in swinging conditions against James Anderson, getting the better of him 4 times in the Test series. He recorded a series of low scores – 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20.
He came under scrutiny after the tour as many began questioning his Test batting credentials. However, Kohli soon silenced him by scoring a ton of runs on the tour of Australia later that year.
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While the spotlight was once again on Kohli India He toured England in 2018 and at that time also he was the captain. The batting maverick managed to shake off the ghosts of the past and scored 593 runs in 10 innings, including two centuries and three half-centuries.
The 34-year-old said that he had a chat with his former RCB teammate de Villiers before the 2018 tour and that conversation with him helped him to calm down.
“I remember AB telling me at that time. I told him that I was feeling a bit upset as I would not be able to go and play county cricket. He said it is not 2014 and you are not the same player. You’ll be all right. After that I became very calm. Before going to England in 2014, I had a good series against New Zealand at home. I scored a century and a 70. I was high on confidence,” Kohli said on RCB Podcast Season 2.
The former India captain suggested he was under a lot of pressure on the 2014 tour of England as he was a bit desperate to prove he could play there but things changed when he traveled back in 2018.
“When we went to England in 2014, I felt I needed to prove myself here, which was wrong. Because I went there to prove something that I can play in these conditions and not to win my team, that was not my focus. My main aim was to prove that I can play here. I was always under pressure. And once things went back I couldn’t find a way out of it. It was a very bad phase,” Kohli said.
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“From 2014 to 2018, I did everything everywhere in the world and performed in every situation. But people just kept on saying ‘oh but what about England’. That’s when I realized that maybe I played a level of cricket that I’m certainly very proud of. I have won many matches for the team, but people are constantly looking at things that have not gone right.
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