Virat Kohli will be under the spotlight as the T20 World Cup 2024 got underway on June 1. India will be playing their first match on June 5 against Ireland in New York and will then clash against Pakistan on June 9, at the same venue.
All eyes will once again be on Team India, who are hoping to end their trophy drought after winning the ICC title in 2013. Since then, India has only experienced heartbreaks. India lost to Australia in the ODI World Cup at home last year, extending the drought even further.
Virat Kohli is coming into the T20 WC 2024 with fantastic form, as he won the Orange Cap in IPL 2024 with 741 runs in 15 games with 1 century and 5 fifties at a strike rate of almost 155.
Many will also remember his poor patch when stadiums were empty during Covid-19. But Dinesh Karthik, his former RCB teammate reasoned why Kohli underwent this poor form.
“Very disarming for a start when you don’t play with crowds. It took us sometime when we played in IPL without any crowds, it was very weird. When you know you hit a shot, you feel like you are playing in a domestic game.
“It very much feels like that, there is nobody around to clap, no sounds. At times, you only hear some claps from the dressing room. It is very weird and it is very hard for people who have played international cricket consistently.
“I really feel one of Virat Kohli’s reasons for him not to have done as well as he generally does during that covid phase is the fact there was no crowd around,” he said on Cricbuzz.
Virat Kohli feeds off the energy from crowds and lack of crowd during Covid 19 played a part: Dinesh Karthik
Virat Kohli had undergone a phase from 2019-2022 where he didn’t score any century in any of the international cricket formats and even in the Indian Premier League. Dinesh Karthik spoke about lack of crowd during Covid era and how it affected Virat Kohli as he is a player who thrives on claps and cheers from fans in the stadium.
“He is someone who completely gets enamored and you know likes getting pushed by crowds and then the likes of Hardik Pandya, you can keep naming big names from India and other parts of the country as well.
“For Virat Kohli, I can say that would have definitely played a massive part, just playing to nobody it would feel weird. It is one thing playing to a TV audience, which is great but you don’t hear them clapping for you. It is a very different feeling to play in front of no one,” he further added.