New Delhi: India skipper Virat Kohli has said he never doubted his abilities during match situations and as a child went to sleep thinking he could gun down a total for the country and win a particular game he has been watching.
“To be honest, I never doubted myself in game situations. Everyone who is human has doubts and weaknesses. Have their negatives. So in practice during tours, if you haven’t had a good session you feel you don’t have that flow,” Kohli said during a Facebook Live session with Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal.
“Yes, doubts creep in then and it’s at the back of your mind. Key is to keep going and get into that zone till you feel that it was just distraction. If I believe I am good enough, then I am good enough.
“Best part about match situation is that you don’t need to think so much. You react to situations knowing your role. Negative voices always come off the field when you are not in competition mode,” said the 31-year old prolific batsman.
Kohli added that when he used to watch India matches, he would invariably think he had it in him to chase down the total.
“Honestly, when I was a kid, I used to watch India games and see them lose I would go to sleep thinking I could have won that match. If I am chasing 380, I never feel that you can’t achieve it.
“In 2011 in Hobart, we had to chase 340 in 40 overs to qualify. At the break I told (Suresh) Raina that we will approach this match as two 20 over games. 40 overs is a big duration. Let’s first play 20 and see how many runs are scored and then play another T20 game.”
Kohli also lauded throwdown specialist D. Raghavendra, saying his ability to pump in speeds in excess of 150-155 kmph with the sidearm enormously contributed to Indian batsmen’s improvement against fast bowling in recent years.
“I believe the improvement this team has shown while playing fast bowling since 2013 has been because of Raghu. He has good concepts about footwork, bat movement of players. He has improved his skills so much that from sidearm he can easily hurl the balls at 155 kmph. After playing Raghu in nets, when you go into the match, you feel there is a lot of time.”
Kohli also spoke about how he had to change his approach to batting to suit his requirement.
“I changed because I wanted to hit all around the ground. The static position was making my options limited. My basic funda of batting is that if your hips are in perfect position then you can play any shot. Static position wasn’t working well for me.
“But it works for a lot of players. Like Sachin Tendulkar had a static stance all his life and he never had a problem. His technique was far superior with excellent hand eye coordination.
“For me I had to change it accordingly to suit my needs. I tried little, little things in my batting as you would never know if you don’t try,” he said.
