Virat Kohli ended his long century drought during India's dead rubber in the Asia Cup against Afghanistan on Thursday, September 8, leading his side to a 101-run victory over their subcontinental opponents. It was a much-needed effort from Kohli, whose dip in form had become a hotly contested debate among critics given that Kohli took three years to register his 71st international century.
The former India skipper had taken a month-long mental health break and showed glimpses of his returning form in the previous matches, before his 56-ball ton. He went on to carry his bat, scoring an unbeaten 122 off 61, and his innings had 12 boundaries and six maximums, registering the highest individual score by an Indian batter in the shortest format.
Following this performance, Kohli and current skipper Rohit Sharma took part in an interview by BCCI TV and was frank about his batting abilities in T20I cricket. "I always come to every (T20I) tournament or series thinking that six-hitting is not a big strength of mine. I can when the situation demands, but I am better at finding gaps and hitting boundaries, so as long as I can hit any boundaries, it will still serve the purpose of the team and I told the coaches as well that I am going to try to hit gaps in the field rather than thinking that I have to hit sixes to take my strike rate up in T20 cricket," Kohli said.
He also spoke about his role within the India squad, "My role in the team is to take responsibility according to the situation. Also, if there is a demand to take the scoring rate higher, I should be able to do that. It was my aim that if I was able to come into this zone, then I'd be relaxed in my space, because if I got set in 10-15 balls then I could accelerate."
"I'm very happy, especially from the team's point of view, that I'm back to playing in my template like I have played for a while, which I was going away from because I was a bit desperate to do something that is not in my game, but I have come back to my template."
The former captain added that the current team environment is 'very special and sacred', "What we are creating in the change room is very special and sacred to all of us. We know how good we as a team feel."
