IND vs SA 2019: Virat Kohli Shares the Secret of His Big Scores

Published 10/12/2019, 1:21 AM EDT

Follow Us

via Imago

India have been playing against South Africa in Pune where the second Test is going on. India captain Virat Kohli says the responsibility of leading the side helps him to push his limits that eventually helped to score big. Surprisingly, no Indian batsman has more double centuries in Test cricket than Kohli, who broke a lot of records with his career-best unbeaten knock of 254 on the second day of the second Test.

He surpassed the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag by scoring a record seventh double ton, the highest in Indian cricket history. Virat Kohli has now 26 Test hundreds and 43 ODI centuries. He also went past Sir Don Bradman’s Test tally of 6,996 runs.

“Feels great it’s a nice little thing to get along in your career, to get most number of double hundreds,” Virat Kohli told BCCI.tv. “I struggled to get big scores initially but then as soon as I became captain then you invariably just think about the team all the time, you can’t just think about your game. In that process you end up batting more than you can imagine that’s been the mindset for a long time now.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

via Imago

While talking about his unbeaten 254 here, the captain said thinking about the team helped him play this innings.

“It’s difficult but if you keep thinking (about the) team then you push yourselves in situations you can’t otherwise. That’s the key in hot and humid, testing conditions you think about the team and you end up batting 3-4 hours more. That was the only challenging thing and then (Ravindra) Jadeja came to bat and you have to run fast with Jaddu. It was physically and mentally challenging and but that’s what you prepare for as an international player,” he added.

Talking about his double centuries, Kohli ranked the 200 against West Indies in North Sound, Antigua and the 235 against England in Mumbai as the top two tons of his. India declared their first innings at 601 for five and then picked up 3 wickets for 36. Kohli added that he was happy with the way the team played.

“The plan was simple, to get to 600 as soon as possible and make them bat tonight. Jaddu batted brilliantly, at a great tempo so that allowed me to take risks and hit the gap. That partnership was great for us we also bowled and ended up taking three wickets,” Virat Kohli concluded.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Shruti Banerjee

794Articles

One take at a time