'I take a lot of pride': Virat Kohli opens up on playing under Rohit Sharma's captaincy

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli opened up on how his cricketing career has shaped up in recent years in a conversation with the ICC. In a video shared on social media by the international cricket governing body ahead of Day 5’s play in the ICC World Test Championship 2023, Kohli revealed he is currently in a happy place. It is understood that the cricket stalwart referred to his lean patch from 2019 to 2022, where he was also snubbed from Team India’s captaincy in ODIs.

The 34-year-old, however, added that he always took pride in the game, first playing under the legendary MS Dhoni, second under his own leadership and then under Rohit Sharma. “I'm in a very happy place. Lots happened over the last couple of years. Lots of stuff off the field. Stuff that over a long period of time in a long career tends to happen mostly with everyone, complication of the sport playing at the highest level,” Virat Kohli told ICC.

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"Doing the job for the team which I take a lot of pride"

“But I feel I am playing my best cricket again and I'm happy being out there with the bat in my hand and doing the job for the team which I take a lot of pride in doing in firstly under MS Dhoni's captaincy then my own captaincy and now under Rohit Sharma. My responsibility as a batter has remained the same,” the former India captain added.

It is worth noting that Kohli scored his 70th international century back in November 2019, but went almost three years without adding a single hundred to his tally. He then took a much-needed break in July last year, which was the first time in his career that he didn’t even touch his bat for a month. Making a return in the Asia Cup 2022, Kohli scored 35 off 34 in the opener against Pakistan, before scoring 59* off 44 against Hong Kong.

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He followed up with a knock of 60 off 44 against Pakistan in a losing cause but went on to script history in the next match. Virat scored 122* off 61 against Afghanistan, registering his first-ever T20I hundred. He then hammered 83* off 53 against Pakistan in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which is arguably the best T20 knock of his career. Since then, Kohli has added three ODI centuries, one Test century, and two IPL centuries in his name.