Indian captain and one of the greatest batsmen, Virat Kohli recently claimed that the 2014 England tour was the milestone in his career, where he hugely struggled in that entire tour. He also revealed how the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and the present Indian Head Coach Ravi Shastri helped him to move on quickly from that worst-experienced tour.
Virat Kohli is presently the no.1-ranked ODI batsman, no.2-ranked Test batsman and no.10-ranked T20I batsman. The right-handed batsman has set a great example of consistent batting, which he has maintained for a long time in every format, as his batting average in every international format is 50+. While he is one of the topmost run-scorers in international cricket history as well as Test and ODI histories, he is the most run-scorer in T20I history.
However, Kohli had disaster experiences during the 2014 England tour, which was one of the worst tours in his international career. In that England tour, while India played five Tests, Kohli only managed to score 134 runs in that Test series with an average of just 13.40. His scores in that Test series were 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0, 7, 6 and 20 runs respectively.
Later, in that same tour, Kohli scored 0, 40, 1* and 13 runs in the ODI series. While India also played only T20I in that England tour, it was the only game for Kohli to play a 50+ knock in that entire tour as the right-handed batsman scored 66 runs in that game.
Recently, when Kohli was talking with the Indian opening batsman Mayank Agarwal on the BCCI website, he claimed that the 2014 English tour was the milestone in his career.
Kohli said, “2014 is always going to be a milestone in my career. People often take good tours are milestones but for me that 2014 tour to England is THE milestone in my career.
When I came back I spoke to Sachin paaji: Virat Kohli
After that horrific tour, Kohli talked with the retired Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. While the present Indian Head Coach Ravi Shastri was the Director of the Indian national cricket team at that time, he also talked with Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan and conducted practice session.
Kohli continued, “When I came back I spoke to Sachin paaji and did a few sessions with him in Mumbai. Ravi bhai too had called me and Shikhar to his room as he also wanted to have a word with him on something and we had practice session as well.”
The present Indian captain Virat Kohli believes that the strong self-awareness can help the Indian team to reach a higher scale.