Indian superstar Virat Kohli has dropped a hint about his playing future while discussing the disappointment of the recent Test tour of Australia.
The 36-year-old was vulnerable outside off stump throughout the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign, caught by the wicketkeeper on in the slips cordon on eight occasions. After notching an unbeaten century during the series opener in Perth, which India won by 295 runs, Kohli finished the series with 190 runs at 23.75 as the tourists slumped to a 3-1 series defeat.
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Speaking at the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit in Bengaluru, Kohli compared the feelings of disappointment to India’s 2014 tour of England, where he contributed 134 runs at 13.40 with no fifties across ten knocks.
“If you ask me the intensity of how disappointed I’ve been, the most recent Australia tour would be the one that’s most fresh. So it might feel the most intense to me,” Kohli said.
“For a long time, the tour of England in 2014 bothered me the most. But I can’t look at it that way.”
Kohli also insinuated the 2024/25 Test tour of Australia could be his last.
“I might not have an Australia tour again in four years. I don’t know,” he continued.
“You have to make peace with whatever’s happened in your life. In 2014, I still had the chance to go in 2018 and do what I did. It might not have been the case. It might have been another blunder. But it didn’t turn out that way.
“So, there’s no such guarantees in life. I think when you are at a stage for a long period of time, when you perform, people get used to your performances. They start feeling for you more than you feel sometimes. This has to be corrected.”
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Kohil discussed how his desperation to contribute built up towards the end of the series, with India losing the coveted trophy for the first time in nearly a decade.
“Once you start taking on the energy and the disappointment from the outside, then you start burdening yourself way more,” Kohli said.
“And then you start thinking about things, like ‘I’ve got two or three days left on this tour, I need to make an impact now.’ And you start getting more desperate. That’s something I’ve surely experienced in Australia as well.
“Because I got a good score in the first Test. I thought, right, ‘Let’s go.’ There’s going to be another big series for me. It doesn’t turn out that way. For me, it’s just about the acceptance of, ‘Okay fine, this is what happened. I’m going to be honest with myself. Where do I want to go? What are my energy levels like?’
“I’m not sitting here in 48 hours or 72 hours-time to make a decision like, ‘Let me go.’ Spend time with family. Just sit down. Let everything calm down. And see how I feel in a few days. And within five-six days I was excited to go to the gym. I was like, okay fine. It’s all good. I don’t need to tweet anything right now.”
Kohli was one of the leading run-scorers during India’s recent Champions Trophy triumph, while his attention now shifts towards the Indian Premier League campaign.