Virat Kohli in the past had opened up about his struggles with form and his mental well-being during the tour of England in 2014. The Indian skipper had a horrific series where he ended up scoring only 134 runs from four Tests. He averaged only 13, with the scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20.
“To be honest before that Australia tour, I was treating every foreign tour like, more like an engineering exam, that I have to pass somehow and I have to show people that I can play at this level," Kohli told Dinesh Karthik in an interaction on Sky Sports.
“There I realised that once you are down and out, there was hardly anyone who came to help me, there was hardly anyone who was looking towards me and saying listen let’s work together and you know try to get your game up to speed, everyone was just going after me left, right and centre. So, I was like I am playing to prove these people long, for what, I have got nothing to do with them, they literally have nothing to contribute in my life."
Kohli further said how talking to Sachin Tendulkar helped him.
“So, I went back home, I was down for quite a bit, the great thing that happened at that stage was, I realised who is with me, who’s not, things were filtered to an extent that I just got so relaxed when I went back home, I was like okay. I have hit a rock bottom now, no one believes in me, everyone thinks I should not be playing Test cricket, so what can I do, I can just work hard as I can," Kohli elaborated.
“I went into a bubble, I went to Bombay as well, I called Sachin Tendulkar, I asked for his help, I said I want to get my game right, I want to understand what it is like to score runs at this level, my mindset was simple. I went back home and I told myself, listen you can’t play Test cricket to show people that you can play in England, Australia and not get out. If you don’t score it is not a point, you play this game to make your team win. So my mindset was I am going to go to Australia and how I am going to score runs against these guys.
“I wasn’t going out there to survive, and from the time I got back home till the Australia tour, I promise you I was visualizing everyday, when I was working out in the gym, that I am hitting Mitchell Johnson, I am hitting these guys all over the park. Those things came to life eventually because I convinced myself to an extent, when I went there I was absolutely fearless and things just started flowing."
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