Ravi Shastri on Virat Kohli: Former India skipper Virat Kohli has finally put an end to his dry run in international cricket by scoring his career's 71st international century in a match against Afghanistan in Asia Cup 2022. The senior batter scored a hundred (122 not out off 61 balls) in international cricket after a long gap of 1,020 days.
Meanwhile, former team India head coach Ravi Shastri praised Kohli for finally 'getting the monkey off his back' by scoring his long-awaited ton. For last several months, Virat faced heat for his poor form across formats. Before the Asia Cup started, Kohli's wretched batting form sparked debate on whether in-he should be picked in India's T20 World Cup 2022 squad or a young in-form batter should replace him.
“You mentioned 1020 days, I can say 700 days I was in that dressing room when that happened. It’s a long time. The monkey is off his back now. When you had astounding success like he has when 70 hundreds come like this, then you go through a patch of one, two years, two-and-half years, two-and-three quarter years, and then everyday people start reminding – ‘It’s been that long’. He is human. It would have been eating him up. He would be getting up every morning, whether thinking of it or not, subconsciously being reminded,” Shastri said on Star Sports.
“Today, I think he will be five kilos less. Don’t ask me where the weight has gone from, five kilos less, at least from the head. You could see from the last 40 runs of his innings. It was Virat Kohli. His trademark shots, the confidence, the poise, the utter disdain for bowling is back. It took a long time coming," ha added.
In the Ind vs Afg Asia Cup match post-match press conference, Virat said it was shocking for him that even his 60s became failures.
"What actually surprised me was my 60s became failures, which was quite shocking for me. I was batting pretty well and contributing, but it didn't seem to be good enough," he said.