“The mind was telling me to take a break”: Virat Kohli discloses that he didn’t touch his bat for a month

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli has admitted that he was mentally down after the recent England tour where he struggled with the bat.

Indian batter Virat Kohli is a cricketing superstar, but he has been failing to make his mark with the bat recently. He has not scored a century since 2019, but recently he is struggling to even score runs. Virat had a below-average IPL, whereas he struggled a lot on the recent English tour as well.

This Asia Cup is very important for Virat as it may well decide his place in the T20 World Cup later this year. Ahead of the Asia Cup, Virat took a break from cricket, and he has now revealed that he took the break because he was mentally down after the recent struggles.

Virat Kohli talks about his mental struggle

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli has admitted that he was mentally down after the recent England tour. He managed to score just 76 runs on the whole tour, and that’s why he took a break from the West Indies and Zimbabwe tour. Kohli said that for the first time in the last 10 years, he did not touch his bat for a month.

Virat said that he realized that he was faking his intensity and was convincing himself that everything was right even when his body was telling him to stop, and his mind was telling him to take a break.

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“For the first time in 10 years, I didn’t touch my bat for a month. I came to realisation that I was trying to fake my intensity a bit recently. I was convincing myself that no, you had the intensity. But your body was telling you to stop. The mind was telling me to take a break and step back,” Kohli said in a video released by Star Sports.

“I’m not shy to admit that I was feeling mentally down. This is a very normal thing to feel, but we don’t speak because we are hesitant. We don’t want to be looked at as mentally weak.”

Virat said that he is mentally strong, but everyone has a limit, and it gets unhealthy as time goes on. He acknowledged that this tough period taught him a lot of stuff, and he now embraces it.