India batting legend Virat Kohli (186 off 364 balls) batted with calm and poise to produce one of the most iconic knocks of all time in Tests while batting against Australia at world's largest stadium in Ahmedabad (Ind vs Aus 4th Test). This was Virat's 28th ton in Tests, his 75th ton overall in international cricket across formats, which helped him put an end to over a three-year wait for a much-awaited century in whites. With this, Virat became the fastest batter in international cricket to score 75 tons -- a record which was previously owned by Sachin Tendulkar.
Talking about his batting heroics in Ahmedabad, Kohli said his innings brought back excitement for him.
"So, when I made the hundred and converted it into a big one, that gave me a sense of calmness, relaxation, and excitement again. You kind of become comfortable with your game, and your thinking, and your heart is not rising before the next practice session. You eventually want to be in such a space. And that particular hundred gave me a grounded feeling back. Just from a cricketing perspective. In life, I was pretty happy and relaxed. But when playing also, you want to be in that space as much as possible," Kohli told Ab de Villiers during an interaction with him on his Youtube channel.
"I and AB have been in touch for a while. he knows how much I value Test cricket. Even though, I had performed in T20Is again and scored ODI centuries and all that stuff, I always felt that white-ball cricket, for me, was more of a thing where if you go in with the right frame of mind on a particular day or for a certain period of time, you can get past the hurdles.
"But even though we played the Test on a wicket that is not offering too much to the bowlers, you still have to bat for good 7-8 hours sometimes, because they (Australia) are that patient with their fields and they could go defensive. It was just testing me costantly. That is something that I have always cherished as a cricketer..," Kohli explained.
"I was getting decent scores, but if you ask me if I was happy with what I was doing. I wasn't. I pride myself in performing for the team to the best of my ability, I certainly wasn't doing that enough. I wanted to score big runs, that's something that always propelled me, whether it was at home or away. I was doing that to a certain extent. But I was not having the same kind of impact that I had before," Kohli concluded.