Virat Kohli enjoyed more success in Test cricket than any other captain in the history of Indian cricket, winning 40 of his 68 games as skipper. However, it wasn’t always a bed of roses for Kohli, and endured perhaps his toughest spell as skipper when India lost 1-4 in a tour of England. Now, actor Varun Dhawan has given an insight into Kohli’s mindset and his way of coping with the defeat in that series, as narrated to him by Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma.
Despite India being handsomely beaten, Kohli was the top run-scorer of the series. At the peak of his powers in 2018, Kohli hit two centuries and three fifties to end the five-match series with 593 runs.
However, Dhawan reveals that Kohli would often beat himself up and blame the loss of the team on himself.
Guess he’s talking about the Edgbaston test 2018. Or maybe from 2021 Eng tour. pic.twitter.com/8SwzOH7PIT
— i_18 (@crickohli18) December 19, 2024
“The times when he’s not been in good form, some insights that Anushka shared with me about his mindset. India had lost a Test. She said she didn’t attend the game that day. She came back and she didn’t know where Virat was. She came to the room and she saw him really down, literally crying. He took the whole thing on himself, that ‘I failed’,” Dhawan revealed on The Ranveer Show.
The series loss against England in 2018 was Kohli’s heaviest series loss as India’s Test captain despite one of his finest performances with the bat.
Virat Kohli: One last chance in 2024
Kohli’s form with the bat has considerably waned since 2018, and he has endured a tough time off late. Kohli has scored only 376 runs in 17 innings for India in Test cricket in 2024, with just one fifty and one century. His average is at a shockingly low 25.
Kohli will have one more chance to redeem his 2024 in Test cricket, as India take on Australia in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne on December 26. With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tied at 1-1, the Test will be crucial to decide the fate of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 final.
