Virat Kohli recently shared that he felt bad about his poor performance during the 2014 cricket series in England. However, his feelings changed when he scored 149 runs during the first Test match at Edgbaston in 2018. In the RCB Podcast Season 2, Virat Kohli also talked about how the crowd welcomed him when he came to play at Edgbaston in 2018.
“My heart was pumping because all I could think of was the flashes of 2014. I walked in and there were about 35,000 people at the stadium and they all started booing the moment I entered the field. My heart started beating faster. They have this amazing ability to create an environment where you feel like I have got no chance here,”
recalled Virat Kohli.
In 2014, when India played cricket in England, James Anderson kept getting Virat Kohli out. Kohli only scored 134 runs in 10 times he batted. But in 2018, when Kohli went back to England, he was much better at batting. He scored 593 runs in the Test series with two hundred and three fifties. That made him the player who scored the most runs in the series.
Virat Kohli on his Edgbaston knock
“I remember James Anderson was the guy running with the ball, and I was like, what are the odds here I am facing the first ball from him again after four years. In my mind, I was like ‘please just play the first ball and he bowled it at the fourth stump and I left that ball’. I became calm after that first ball and then I got dropped at 22. I could have got out on 22 in that innings but I got 149 and I didn’t look back from there, so that’s when you realised that you just can’t sit there and crib about things that didn’t go right. There are a lot of things that went right. So much wait was lifted from my shoulder,” he said.
Kohli was really excited to get ready for the 2018 series. He was so eager that he even signed a contract with Surrey. Unfortunately, he hurt his neck while playing in IPL and couldn’t play.
“I was going to play county cricket before the 2018 series. I was a bit nervous because I thought I needed to prepare more. But then I had a neck issue in 2018 I fell ill in one of the IPL games and I could not go there because It aggravated,”
said Kohli.
Kohli about how AB helped him
Virat Kohli remembered how his RCB teammate AB de Villiers‘ words helped him feel less nervous before going to England.
“I remember AB telling me at that time. I spoke to him that I am feeling a bit jittery because I am not able to go and play in the county. He said this is not 2014, and you are not the same player. You would be absolutely fine. I became very calm after that,”
he said.
Virat Kohli also accepted what exactly went wrong for him in the 2014 tour, and he failed so miserably.
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