Crediting his rampaging run to captaincy, Indian swashbuckler Virat Kohli says the added responsibility has left no room for complacency in his batting and that has helped him achieve the record-breaking feat of four double hundreds in as many Test series.
Kohli, who smashed 204 on the second day of the ongoing one-off Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, said captaincy has helped him go for longer innings in Test matches.
“I don’t know, I think it is because of captaincy that you tend to go on more than what you usually would as a normal batsman. I think the room for complacency is no more present when you become captain. So, that has something to do with me playing long innings,” the 28-year-old right-handed batsman said.
“I have always wanted to play long innings and my first seven or eight hundreds were not even 120 plus scores. After that I made a conscious effort to bat long and control my excitement or not be complacent at any stage,” he told bcci.tv when asked about his hunger for big scores.
En route his 204, Kohli became the first batsman in the history of Test cricket to claim four double hundreds in as many series. In the process, he surpassed the legendary Sir Don Bradman and Rahul Dravid, both of whom had three double hundreds in successive series.
Kohli’s four double hundreds have come against West Indies (200), New Zealand (211), England (235) and now Bangladesh.
The Indian captain said that he’s is no longer satisfied with Test hundreds and his fitness level allows him to play for longer innings and eye bigger scores.
“I worked on my fitness level over the years and I feel I can go for longer periods now. I don’t get tired as much as I used to before. Definitely, I don’t get satisfied when I get a Test hundred which used to be before, because I used to give too much importance to Test cricket separately. Now I have started to treat it as any game of cricket and I have to keep going on till the time the team needs to,” said the Delhi batsman.
Asked how he has been able to maintain consistency across the three formats, he said, “It is not easy to do especially with the amount of cricket we play nowadays. It is more of a mental thing. I don’t necessarily focus too much on practice because sometimes you might not get to practice so much.
“I think mentally you need to focus and think about what you are going to do in the game. Switching to different formats is the need of the hour in these days’ cricket. I certainly want to contribute in all three formats. That has always been the mindset and I have to prepare in a certain way. It is more mental than going into the nets.”
He, however, admitted that the Hyderabad pitch was not as testing as other wickets on which he had scored his double centuries earlier.
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