Felt there is no chance I am getting runs: Kohli opens up on 2014 England tour in chat with KP

Tags: India, Virat Kohli, Kevin Peter Pietersen

Published on: Apr 04, 2020

India skipper Virat Kohli has opened up about the disastrous 2014 Test series in England during which he struggled to put bat to ball. In a Live Instagram session with former England batsman and captain Kevin Pietersen, Kohli revealed that he felt like he would get out every time he went out to bat.

In the 2014 Test series in England, Kohli had a horrendous time with just 134 runs in 10 innings at an average of 13.40 with a highest score of 39. "I felt like as a batsman, you know you are going to get out in the morning as soon as you wake up. That was the time I felt like that there is no chance I am getting runs. And still to get out of bed and just get dressed for the game and to go out there and go through that, knowing that you will fail, was something that ate me up," Kohli candidly admitted during his interaction with Pietersen.

The Indian captain further admitted that he failed because he was thinking too much about his own batting, and not about the team. "2014 series happened, for all the younger guys listening, because I was too focused on doing well from a personal point of view. I wanted to get runs. I could never think of what the team wanted me to do in this situation," Kohli added.

"I just got too engulfed with the England tour - if I perform here, Test cricket, in my mind I am going to feel established and all that crap on the outside, which is not important at all," he further said. Kohli, however, put his demons to rest with a superb run in the same country in 2018. Even as India lost the series 1-4, Kohli was the leading run-scorer with 593 runs at an average of 59.30 with two hundreds and three fifties.

KP and Kohli also had a light-hearted interaction over the former England batsman being MS Dhoni’s first Test wicket. Back in 2011, Pietersen was caught off Dhoni. However, the batsman referred it to the third umpire, and was given not out as the hotspot showed no visible edge.

Pietersen discussed the same during the interaction with Kohli. ” A lot of people told me, I am Dhoni’s first test wicket. I referred it & I was given not out remember?,” he asked Kohli. However, the Indian skipper replied that the sound came on the stump mic. “Yeah, I know. Look the thing is, MS has a point, It came up on the stump mics and nothing came on the hotspot so he has a point,” Kohli maintained.

To this, Pietersen asked Kohli to stop backing MS. “Oh, you stop backing him,” the South African-born Englishman shot back. During the Instagram session, Kohli told Pietersen about his favourite format, and also why he turned vegan.

--By A Cricket Correspondent

Related News