Cricket
Virat Kohli recalls ‘nervous’ World Cup debut: Helped me to be aware and alert
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Virat Kohli went down the memory lane to the ODI World Cup in 2023 when he made his debut at the biggest stage. Kohli, who was only into his second year in international cricket, played the tournament opener against Bangladesh on February 19 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
Kohli admitted that he had butterflies in his stomach after getting the chance to play alongside the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and others. Kohli recalled the moments before India’s warm-up match against Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2024 on June 1 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
“It was against Bangladesh in Dhaka, my first game and I was nervous. Yes, I will not lie. There is a different sense of excitement in the air when you come for a World Cup and I could obviously sense that. I was the youngest member of that team and I was getting to play with all these greats of Indian cricket in a World Cup game,” Kohli said on an interview with Star Sports.
‘It was a good sign’
Kohli had an outing to remember after he scored an unbeaten 100 off 83 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. He was also involved in a partnership of 203 runs with Sehwag, who tormented the opposition bowlers with a knock of 175. From there on, Kohli hasn’t looked back and currently has 1795 runs to his name from 37 matches at an average of 59.83 with 5 centuries.
“For me it was definitely a moment where I was a bit nervous heading into the game and definitely the night before I was quite nervous but that is a good sign as well because your body is preparing you to enter a situation where you’re alert, you’re not taking things for granted. I think that nervousness helped me to be aware, be alert and be absolutely precise in the execution of my plans,” he added.
Kohli is expected to play a big part for the Men in Blue when they start their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Paul Stirling’s Ireland.
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