IPL 2017: Season taught me a lot about myself, says Virat Kohli

From IPL 2016 to IPL 2017, Virat Kohli has seen it all. From flying high with four centuries in the ninth edition of Indian Premier League to amassing four Test double centuries in the space of eight months and guiding the Test team to No. 1 ranking, Kohli could hardly do anything to stop Royal Challengers Bangalore from finishing last in the just concluded T20 league.

The last IPL has taught Kohli some invaluable lessons. The Indian team captain said here on Wednesday: “After the kind of season we (RCB) had, it teaches you about yourself as a person at a few levels. From a mind set point of view, it made me realise that you cannot do everything in every game. Sometimes people might start looking at you like that, sometimes as a human being, you need to realise your limitations and take a few step backwards.

“It was so bizarre, everything that we tried was going against us. Never experienced that in a side. Not just 11, but all the 15 in the squad were all in the same mind set. It was bizarre and may be it was to teach me to balance things out and take a step back and think about how much you can to on the field and how much intensity with which you can play, may be choose your phases.

“As I keep getting older, those things are important and you need to avoid burnout, too. Those were the biggest learnings for me. I was pretty fortunate that I got to experience such a time. It teaches you a lot as captain, Composure-wise, it teaches you a lot. You take a lot away from failures, which is what I have always cherished.”

It is expected that some of the indifferent form by the Indian players in IPL are left behind and everyone get into good nick in Champions Trophy. Asked how IPL can help India prepare for a 50-over tournament, Kohli said: “I don’t think you can have too much similarity in both formats. From getting some game time, it helps a lot of people in staying in the zone of being match ready, to say the least. It is different for different people. Some people cannot connect the two formats at all, some people take the bits and pieces and put them into place in all three formats.

“Just being match fit, just having the rhythm of bowling, the flow of batting, just the mental set up of scoring runs in tough situations are something you can carry forward to all the formats. IPL being the high-competitive tournament, allows you to be in that zone when you play world-class players from all the teams. I think it could be the most competitive games you could be part of before something like Champions Trophy.”

Kohli was also hoping that his team gets into top form right from the first ball of the first game. There is no room for error in Champions Trophy as compared with the World Cup.

“Because the tournament is much shorter and you have the top eight teams in the world, the competitiveness of the tournament is much higher from the word go. In the World Cup, you can still have the league games and you have yourselves to get into the World Cup and then dominate in the latter half,” Kohli explained when asked about the difference in approach to Champions Trophy and World Cup.

“But in Champions Trophy, you have to be on the top of your game from game one. If you are not, your chances go down pretty soon. That’s the biggest challenge in Champions Trophy and something that all the players love playing, for sure. It is so competitive that the fans love watching, it is an ICC event. It is going to get a lot of eye balls. But for players, that is the general feedback that we have to be on the top of our game, no matter what, from ball one of the first game.”