After a wait of 1205 days, star India batter Virat Kohli finally registered a Test century, bringing up three figures on day four of the fourth Test against Australia in Ahmedabad. Kohli slammed a 186-run knock and was named ‘Player of the Match’ as the game ended in a draw. India won the series 2-1 and also qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, after New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka in the first Test at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday.
During Kohli’s lean patch with the bat, some questions were raised over his place in the team.
After the conclusion of the match, Kohli opened up on his knock, saying that he was trying to “justify” his place in the team.
“To be honest, the expectations I have from myself as a player is more to important to me. I felt I was batting well from the first innings at Nagpur. We focused on batting for long. I did that to an extent but not to the capability that I have done in the past. Was a little disappointed for that. Relief from the point of view that I could play the way I wanted to play. I was happy with my defence. Now I am not in a space where I will go out and prove someone wrong. I also need to justify why I am there on the field,” Kohli said at the presentation ceremony.
Speaking on his 163-run stand with Axar Patel, Kohli said that the pair decided to take their time in the middle as they were a player short in the batting department, due to Shreyas Iyer’s injury.
“When I was 60 not out, we decided to play positively. But we lost Shreyas to injury and were a batter short. So, we decided to play time. They were good with the ball and placed some good fields. We got a bit of a lead and gave ourselves some sort of a chance,” he added.