He may have shattered Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s record on his way to becoming the fastest batsmen to reach 10,000 ODI runs but Virat Kohli is not taking anything for granted.
“Even after playing for 10 years, I don’t feel like I’m entitled to anything here,” Kohli told BCCI.tv.
As for what it was that catapulted him to the milestone in record time, he puts it down to never taking it easy.
“You still have to work hard for every run you score at the international level while playing for your country because there are many people who want this very badly and when you’re in that position yourself, you should have that same hunger and passion. You should never take things for granted, never take it easy at any stage.”
The Indian captaincy has at times seemed like a poisoned chalice with the likes of Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly struggling for form in the past while leading the national team.
However, Kohli has thrived under the responsibility and everything that comes with taking charge of the game’s most followed outfit.
Of all Indian captains to have had a tenure stretching at least 10 games, Kohli is the most successful with a win rate of 77.55 per cent.
Fastest to 10,000: Virat Kohli.
In fact, the world’s No1 batsman claims that the captaincy has helped his form at the crease.
According to statsduggout.com, Kohli boasts an incredible average of 88.32 as captain from 51 innings compared to his overall average of 59.62 from a total of 205 innings.
“I’ve been able to push my physical abilities and my mental abilities on just focusing on what the team needs, and in that process more runs have been scored than maybe I would have otherwise if I was thinking about my own batting or anything like that,” he said.
“So I’ve just focused on the situation, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to help the team by contributing with the bat. My duty is to score runs and having done that for a long period now, everything has collected together for this moment but the intention always should be every game, every situation to look for what the team needs and just score as many runs as possible.”
A terrific feat for the India superstar.
While he won’t dwell on it for too long just yet, Kohli is proud of his achievements after a decade at the highest level but remains hungry for more success.
“To understand you’ve come so far in your career playing for 10 years is something quite special to me because I love the sport so much and you want to play it more and more, and that for me is the most important thing, so I’m just happy that I’m able to play for this long and hopefully many more years to come,” he said.
“I never thought I could achieve this feat or I would get to this stage. I always thought I just want to play for India, I never thought that this day would arrive and it just tells me that if you’re focused on the process and the right things then these things become irrelevant after a while.”
