IND vs AUS: Virat Kohli Opens Up After Breaking Century Drought, Says This Thing 'Was Eating Me Up A Lot'

Saikat Ghosh

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Scoring a century was special for Virat Kohli as he had to endure tough time with the bat after Covid. He also went onto lose his captaincy in 2021.

Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, IND vs AUS, 4th Test
Virat Kohli speaks to head coach Rahul Dravid after the end of the fourth Test match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. (Source: Twitter)

Virat Kohli broke his three-year-long Test century drought during the fourth Test match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. He slammed a match saving 186 runs against a quality attack from Australia and helped the hosts seal a slender lead at a time when India were struggling to save the match. Meanwhile, coming back to Kohli, the former India captain had been enduring a tough time since Covid. He not only lost his captaincy, but also went onto lose his form in 2021 which turned out to be a very bad year.

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He finally broke the century drought against Afghanistan during the Asia Cup T20 in August last year. Moreover, he went onto score his first Test century in three years at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

This was a special moment for the ‘King’ as he had to endure tough time with the bat. The runs had dried up and now the team needed something special against Australia since Kohli hadn’t made any impact throughout the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

In the end he bounced back from the adversities and went onto slam 186 runs as India took 91 run lead.

Speaking to Head Coach Rahul Dravid, Kohli said he knew he would get a big one when he was playing at 40.

“I know you are someone who takes a lot of pride in his performance and has that habit of scoring 100 regularly. I know there was COVID, so, not a lot of Test matches but has it been hard not to have scored a Test hundred (for this long)? I know we get a little obsessed with numbers. I've loved seeing some of the other innings. Even the 70 in Cape Town was a really good innings. But has (not scoring a hundred) been at the back of your mind?" Dravid asked in an interview for BCCI.tv.

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"Honestly, I've let the complications grow on me a bit because of my shortcomings. The desperation to get to the three-figure mark is something that can grow on you as a batsman. I let that happen to me to a certain extent. But a flip side to it is, I'm not a guy who is happy with 40-45. I take a lot of pride in performing for the team. It's not like when Virat Kohli should stand out. When I'm batting on 40, I know I can get a 150. That was eating me up a lot. Why am I not able to get that big score for the team? Because I took pride in the fact that when the team needed me, I stood up, scoring in difficult conditions. The fact that I wasn't able to do that, was bothering me," he said.

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WATCH this candid interaction: