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Virat Kohli is considered one of the greatest batters in world cricket at No. 3 spot. Of the 27,599 runs he’s scored in international cricket, 15,303 of them have come when playing at No. 3.
In an interview with Mayanti Langer, Kohli revealed how MS Dhoni and Gary Kirsten played a key role in pushing him to that spot and their rationale behind it.
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Dhoni was the India captain at the time with Kirsten the Team India coach during the 2011 ODI World Cup.
“I was very realistic about my abilities. Because I had seen a lot of other people play. And I did not feel like my game was anywhere close to theirs. The only thing that I had was the determination. And if I wanted to make my team win, I was willing to do anything.
“That was the very reason I got chances to play for India initially. And Gary (Kirsten) and MS (Dhoni) made it very clear to me that we are backing you to play at number 3. And this is what you can do for the team. And what you represent on the field, your energy, your engagement, that is of the biggest value to us. So we want you to play that way.
“So I was never looked at as this outright match winner who can change the game from anywhere. But I had this thing of, ‘I’m going to stay in the fight’. I’m not going to give up.
“And that is what they backed. So that very thing that God blessed me with, that helped me to improve my game, my technique, everything. And I’ve never been shy to admit that I was not the most technically sound and naturally gifted player.
“I evolved a lot while I was playing because I was very keen to learn and I was very keen to get better. And I wanted to be the best. There is no denying that I wanted to be the best.
“And that hunger, that desire to keep improving, eventually to win more games for your team is what helped me improve my game,” continued Kohli.
Kohli, 36, has spent half of his age representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru as one of the rare one-team-player in IPL. He revealed he considered leaving the team but changed his mind.
“There are couple of others, they might not have been that big names,” said Kohli when asked to put himself in the list of global sporting icons such as Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Tom Brady.
“Steven Gerrard was one. Francesco Totti was one. He stayed at Roma through his whole career. I’ve mentioned this before. I had the opportunity to explore, to look elsewhere, especially in the very prime peak years of my career from 2016 to 2019, I had constant suggestions and what not, to switch.
“At one point, it did become really tough for me because there was just too much happening in my career. I was captaining India for a period of 7-8 years. I was captaining RCB for nine years.
“There were expectations on me from a batting perspective. Every game that I played. I didn’t have this sense that the attention is off me. If it wasn’t captaincy, it was batting. If it wasn’t batting, it was captaincy. I was always in this space where I was like, what do I do? I was exposed to it 24/7. It did get very tough on me and it did get too much in the end. That’s why I stepped down.
Because I felt like, if I’ve decided I want to be in this place, I need to be happy. I need to have a space in my life where I can just come and play my cricket without being judged, without being looked at as, what are you going to do this season? What’s going to happen now? This, that and the other. So, I did feel, I wouldn’t say tempted, but I did think about it. I also asked myself the question, what is more valuable to me? I’ve won a lot of things in my career for India.
“So I thought, fine, what is of more value to me today? Do I want to go to a new setup and try to figure out life again? And I don’t know how the system is going to be, how people are going to treat me, how patient people are going to be with me. They’ve brought me in for X, Y, Z reasons. If those reasons are not met, what is the dynamic going to turn out to be? So I felt like, you know what? For me, what’s more valuable is the relationship and the mutual respect that has been created over so many years. And I’m just going to say it now, whether we win or we don’t win, it’s fine. This is my moment,” stated Kohli.
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