Mumbai, Apr 10: Champion cricketer Virat Kohli said curbing the ego and playing as per the demands of a match situation form the core principle of his batting.One of the most successful batters of the modern era, Kohli recently flew past another milestone while becoming the first Indian player to score 13000 runs in T20s.
“It’s (batting) never about ego. It was never about trying to overshadow anyone. It’s always been about understanding the game situation — and that’s something I’ve always taken pride in. I want to play according to what the situation demands,” Kohli told JioHotstar.
“If I was in rhythm, in the flow of the game, I naturally took the initiative. If someone else was better placed to take the lead, they would do it,” he added.
Kohli is the highest run-getter in the IPL with 8168 runs from 256 matches with eight hundreds, the most by any batter.
The 36-year-old said he decoded the demands of the format from the 2011 edition onwards.
“In my first three years with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, I didn’t get many opportunities to bat in the top order. I was usually sent lower down. So, I wasn’t really able to crack the IPL in a big way.
“But from 2010 onwards, I started performing more consistently, and by 2011, I was regularly batting at number three. That’s when my IPL journey really began to take shape,” he added.
Kohli admitted that spending 18 years in the league helped him polish his skills in the shortest version of cricket.
“IPL challenges you in a very unique way because of how the tournament is structured. It’s not like a short bilateral series, it spans several weeks, and your position on the points table keeps shifting. That constantly changing scenario brings different kinds of pressure.
“This dynamic nature of the tournament pushes you mentally and competitively in various ways other formats don’t. It’s also driven me to constantly improve and evolve my T20 skill set,” he noted.