Virat Kohli celebration vs West Indies: The Indian captain opened up on doing the “Notebook” celebration in Hyderabad.
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India captain Virat Kohli doesn’t want young batsmen to follow his 23rd T20I half-century especially its first part. Coming in to bat at No. 3 in the fourth over, Kohli failed to time the ball for at least the first 20 balls that he faced.
The lack of timing had a direct effect on Kohli’s body language as the 31-year old player was repeatedly seen getting irritated after not playing the ball in the manner that he aspired to.
“All the young batsmen watching don’t follow the first half of my innings. That was really bad and I was trying to hit too hard. It was just about keeping up to the game because I didn’t want to put KL [Rahul] under pressure, so tried to strike at 140 at least, but I couldn’t get going properly.
“But I started to get going after that over from Jason [Holder]. I analysed what went wrong and played accordingly in the second half of my innings. I was trying to hold my shape and realized I am not a slogger, so tried to rely on my timing,” Kohli was quoted as saying during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Virat Kohli celebration vs West Indies
Being asked about if the reason behind him not timing the ball properly was him playing a T20I right after a Test series, Kohli laid emphasis on playing all the three formats at the same time.
“I don’t want to change my game too much because I play all three formats. I just want to contribute in all three formats, that’s what I want to do. I don’t want to be a format specialist.
“When you are chasing a big total, there are a lot of distractions with the scoreboard pressure. But after a few dots, the game puts you in a position where you just have to hold your shape and play the shots,” Kohli said.
The pinnacle of Kohli’s innings was him hitting West Indies fast bowler Kesrick Williams for a sublime six and following it up with the “Notebook celebration“. Before concluding, Kohli explained the reason behind emulating Williams’ celebration.
“It’s not the CPL [Caribbean Premier League]. It happened to me in Jamaica [in 2017] when he got me out. So I thought I’ll tick a few in the notebook as well, but all good. There were a few words, but smiles at the end.
“That’s what you want to see. Good competitive cricket but in the end shake hands and give a hi-fi. That’s what cricket is all about. Play it hard but have respect for opponents,” Kohli added.
