Virat Kohli spoke on his troubles with facing outside off-stump balls.
Senior India batter Virat Kohli returned to form with an entertaining century in the Champions Trophy 2025 match against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday. That was Kohli’s 51st ODI hundred, and his first since the 2023 ODI World Cup at home. Time and again, Kohli has recently struggled while playing outside off-stump deliveries.
After the match, the 36-year-old admitted that playing outside off-stump deliveries has become his weakness, but at the same time his strength as well. Kohli’s unbeaten century helped India chase down 242 against Pakistan with six wickets to spare and inch closer to the semi-finals.
“It’s a catch-22. I mean, it’s kind of been my weakness as well over the years, but I’ve scored a lot of runs on that shot,” Kohli told BCCI in a video uploaded on their official “X” handle.
“I think today was just about backing my shots and I think the first couple of boundaries I got were cover drives on the rise, so I really had to just let it go a little bit and take a bit of risk and follow through with my shots, because when I hit those kind of shots, then I feel in control when I bat out there, so it was a good innings for me personally and as you said, it was a great team win,” the Delhi batter explained.
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The former India captain was pleased to have contributed towards an important win.
“I was able to bat the way I wanted to bat and to contribute in a winning cause in an important game obviously feels big, so yeah, it was imperative that we get stuck in and get this win to be able to qualify,” he commented.
He elaborated on his responsibility of batting at the No 3 position.
“One thing that I’ve always thought of batting at three is to minimise risk and make sure that I put my team in a winning position and if you have a chance to finish off the game in a chase, obviously that’s much better and I always preferred that kind of a situation, but yeah, my role over the years has remained the same, whatever the demand of the game, I put my head down and try to do that,” added Kohli.
The win enabled India to climb to the top spot in Group A with four points from two matches. Should New Zealand beat Bangladesh in the other Group A match on Monday, the Men in Blue along with the Kiwis will qualify for the semi-finals. It will not be that straightforward should Bangladesh beat New Zealand. The Rohit Sharma-led side will face New Zealand in their final group-stage match in Dubai on March 2.
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