I Kept Telling Myself, 'I am Good Enough': Kohli Opens up on Game-changing Tour of His Career So Far

Former captain Virat Kohli walked down memory lane and recalled the India tour of Australia in 2011-12, which helped him cement his place in the Test set-up. Kohli was already an integral part of India’s ODI set-up during that time and was also part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad but there were still some doubts over his credentials in red-ball cricket. However, Kohli silenced his critics by finishing as India’s highest run-getter in that series with 300 runs in 4 matches.

It was a tough tour for India as they suffered a 0-4 hammering in Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, Kohli termed it as a game-changing series for him as performing in tough Aussie conditions boosted his confidence.

“I would say 2012. We were in Australia, and I remember, those two Test matches had gone horribly wrong,” said Kohli in the latest episode of the RCB Podcast. “We were playing in Perth, the third Test match, and it was a very tough pitch with a lot of pace and bounce and a lot of grass on the pitch.

“I knew that if I don’t perform, there’s no chance that I’m going to play the fourth and probably have to go back to first-class cricket and find my way up again,” he added.

Kohli said he was under immense pressure and being the youngest in the squad at that time and also put himself in some self-doubt too.

“When you lose two Test matches very badly in Australia, the whole environment becomes very tense and everyone is obviously feeling a lot of pressure,” he added.

“When it’s your first tour to Australia and you see everyone kind of feeling that pressure, as a youngster, you feel like, ‘I’ve got no chance here’, because the whole team is feeling like that, and I’m the most inexperienced, how the hell am I going to turn this around? In those adverse situations, I got a resilience that maybe I can be different if I think differently,” he said.

The batting maestro further recalled that he used to remind himself that he is good enough to be part of the Indian team as he has already done well in the ODI format.

“Every time I stepped onto the bus or went to a practice session, I always had music on. I kept telling myself that I am good enough to play at this level, and if I can get eight hundreds in ODI cricket, I can manage this as well. I kept telling myself, ‘I am good enough’.

“I ended up scoring 48 in the first innings and 75 in the second in conditions that were very tough, and I was the highest run-getter for us in the Test match. That made me believe that the power of visualization and believing in yourself, it’s so huge that we never tap into the potential of that fully,” he added.

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