Virat Kohli: The rush of blood cricketer

Virat Kohli was often criticised for being needlessly aggressive and inexplicably brash. The average number of swear words he used in an hour would be higher than his batting average few years ago. Sunil Gavaskar had pulled him up for his lack of language etiquettes after scoring a century in Australia.

Attitude problem — was how he was described.

A couple of years on, he is still aggressive and the brashness is there too. However, Kohli is a mature 25-year-old. Though he doesn't believe in putting a lid on his emotions, he doesn't believe in letting it brim over. He has learnt to control himself.

For somebody with temper, Kohli is not the silent brooding types. Contrararily, he is seldom silent while going about his routines. Always up to something, he is a live wire be it a football game with teammates or a session in the swimming pool.

While Kohli behaves like a quintessential rich and famous 25-year-old, his batting and his approach to the game reflects his mental toughness. On Friday, too, he displayed it talent chasing South Africa's 172, almost single-handedly with an unbeaten 72 in the semifinal of the ICC World Twenty20.

He maybe brazen in his demeanour but he is ever so circumspect about the job in hand. Chasing a big total, he collected big chunk of his runs in singles and doubles, kept rotating the strike, the score on the move.

So how does he manage to handle the pressure better than others?

"Cricket is played more between your ears than your technique. If you can be mentally strong then you can tell yourself to stay on at the wicket. Till about 20 runs, I didn't hit a boundary. It's about staying patient and calm and not thinking about how many runs or balls are remaining. It is important to back yourself, which I think, everybody does with time," said Kohli about his approach.

"Once you start scoring runs you start believing in yourself more. That's something I try to do and try to keep myself in that zone," he added.
Kohli, who got most of his runs by rotating the strike, said the importance of singles is higher in this format. "I think in a T20 game, a single is as important as a six, that's something I always believe.

"It is also very important to keep rotating the strike. Usually, in a rush of blood, you keep looking for boundaries but as long as you keep rotating the strike, the scorecard ticking and not lose wickets, the opposition captain has to think about a lot of things," he said.