The star of world cricket, Virat Kohli bowed his head to God in gratitude, as they won their second title in the T20 World Cups, after a gap of 17 years, and eventually went on to end their 11-year drought of earning an ICC trophy.
With this process, Virat Kohli also joins a rare list of players, along with MS Dhoni to be part of three different ICC titles. He won the ODI version in 2011, the Champions Trophy in 2013, and now in the T20 format in 2024.
For the whole season in this T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli has been under pressure, with his struggle with the bat, managing only 75 runs in seven innings, coming into the final of the tournament, at a strike rate of exactly 100.
‘Couldn’t have dreamt of a better day’- Virat Kohli
With the change of T20 format in the modern generation, India has taken a different route in the template of playing the shortest format of the game, and that’s being aggressive from the start of the tournament. This means Kohli was asked to open the innings and be aggressive from the first ball.
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That has hurt him in his form. From the start of his international career, Virat Kohli has always been a natural and rhythm player, and he hardly looks to power the ball from the start, rather than putting his attention to get set and whack towards the end of the innings.
In the very first game of the tournament against Ireland, Kohli used his feet and looked to go down the ground against the pacers, only to find the third-man fielder, who grabbed the catch with ease. In the next game against Pakistan, the Delhi-born started with a beautiful boundary, before finding the fielder at the end.
The same continues for the game against the USA, and then in the ‘super eight’ stage of the tournament. He was set against Afghanistan in Barbados, but still couldn’t capitalize even after a decent start in his innings. Virat Kohli held his shape in Antigua against Bangladesh and slowly looked to get back in form.
But again in their last game of the ‘super eight’ against Australia, he couldn’t judge the short ball and returned for a five-ball duck. He again smashed Reece Tropley for an early six in the England game, but two balls later found the ball nailing onto his stumps.
The pressure was getting higher, but Virat was confident, and once they lost three wickets in the powerplay, it was his moment of being slow and understanding the situation of the game. The pitch wasn’t made for a 200-run, but if they reach 170 around, they could think of defending the total.
The former India captain got a great start in the innings, with four quick boundaries, but there was a period of 37 balls in the middle, he didn’t even hit a single four. The pressure got in him, but he held his composure, and nailed a special knock of 76 runs in 59 balls, shouldering on six boundaries and a couple of sixes.
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The way the pitch got slowed down towards the end, just showed the importance of the knock at that point of time, as they earned a seven-run win, and Kohli finished the tournament with 151 runs in eight innings, at an average of under 19 and a strike rate of 112.68, with one solitary fifty.
‘Couldn’t have dreamt of a better day than this. God is great and I bow my head in gratitude. We finally did it.’ Virat Kohli expressed this on his social media handle.
He has also taken retirement from the format, making way for the youngsters to carry the pride of this country for the future.