The Indian batting great reasserted his mindset on milestones and how he now likes to judge the health of his game through contributions and impact on the team's fortunes.
The much-celebrated century on Day 2 of the Trinidad Test was Virat Kohli’s 29th Test hundred for the country. The Indian batting giant also broke a longstanding drought of not being able to produce an away hundred with his willow. It was Kohli’s first overseas ton in five years since a legacy-defining knock in the Perth 2018 Test match on a green-seaming track against the mighty Australian attack.
The reference to the five-year wait was made quite regularly in the commentary box while Kohli was into compiling his marathon effort at the Queen’s Park Oval and ultimately reached him on the second day’s play when the broadcasters asked him how he felt at overcoming a sustained blip of foreign centuries.
In response, the modern-day legend reinforced he doesn’t anymore believe in revisiting the health of his game via the big milestones and refuses to budge over talk outside about the lack of hundreds. Happy to contribute to the team and leave an impact on games, Kohli said he has realised that is what he will be remembered for 15 years down the line.
Speaking to broadcasters about his first century away from home in five years and only his second ton from the beginning of a difficult period of his career back in 2020, Kohli said it’s not the milestones but the contributions and impact with which he judges his game now.
The 34-year-old said he acknowledges that milestones would be forgotten not long after he retires from the game, but the contributions made to the team in different circumstances will be etched in the memory bank and give him greater personal satisfaction.
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“These are things for others to talk I have got 15 hundreds away from home, that’s not a bad record,” Kohli said. “I have got more hundreds away than at home. The key is to do well to the best of my ability. We haven’t played 30 matches away from home and I have got a few fifty-plus scores. I want to contribute as much as possible.”
“If I get 50 the feeling is I missed out on a 100, if I get 120 the feeling is I missed out on a double hundred. These stats and milestones (will) mean nothing in 15 years’ time, what they will remember is if I left an impact or not.”
“I am grateful to play 500 games for India. I never imagined. It’s all hard work. It’s the commitment you give to the sport you are playing which gives you the result,” he added.
