‘I felt I had no chance to score runs’ - Virat Kohli narrates the horrors of the 2014 England tour

Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, reckons that India’s tour of England was the lowest point of his personal career. Back then, the Delhi-born was yet to find his feet in the longest format and the pace friendly conditions on English soil made the mockery out of him. Barring the Lord’s Test, India found the going tough, so did Kohli, who had very little clue about proceedings in the middle.

In five matches, he could only muster 134 runs at a terrible average of 13.40. James Anderson gave him plenty of headaches outside the off-stump and Virat kept succumbing to the pressure. Having gotten a top score of 39, the series didn’t give many happy memories to Virat. The situation was worse to such an extent that Kohli had almost given up on his quest of scoring runs.

The now 31-year-old went down the memory lane during an interaction with Kevin Pietersen, who had a live session on Instagram. He recalled how it was tough for him as a cricketer to get ready for the day knowing that he was going to get out. However, the Indian captain also admitted that it was his mistake that then he was just thinking about himself and not about the team.

“That is one phase where I felt like, when as a batsman you know you are going to get out in the morning when 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.

“It just demolished me completely. And I promised myself I am never going to allow myself to feel like that ever again in life. I wanted to get runs. I could never think of what does the team want me to do in this situation.  just got too engulfed with England tour — if I perform here, Test cricket, in my mind I’m going to feel established and all that crap on the outside, which is not important at all.

“It just ate me up. I just kept going into a downward spiral and I just couldn’t get out of it. Horrible,” Kohli told Pietersen during the chat recalling the horror summer in England.

Virat Kohli- A much stabled cricketer

Prior to the tour, Kohli had played 24 Tests in which he managed 1,721 runs at an average of 46.51 with six centuries to his name. Three of those tons came in overseas conditions- Adelaide, Johannesburg and Wellington respectively. Nevertheless, that tour turned Kohli’s around in a drastic manner. In 2018 when India went there, he became India’s leading run-scorer of the series.

In five matches, Virat churned out 593 runs at an average of 59.30. Most importantly, he notched a couple of centuries and three half-centuries with a top score of 149. The next highest scorer in the series was Jos Buttler, who was 243 runs shy of Kohli. Currently, he is one of India’s most reliable batsman in the format, having scored 7,240 runs in 86 games at an average of 53.62.

He also has 27 centuries and 22 fifties to his name. Recently, he went through some rough outings in New Zealand where he was unable to set the stage on fire. However, bearing in mind the quality he has, it seems to be a matter of time before Virat gets back his rhythm.