‘Was trying to fake it’ — Virat Kohli opens up on recent struggles

Virat Kohli’s extended run of low scores did affect his mental health, revealed the champion cricketer himself, while admitting that the recent phase was the first time he hadn’t touched his bat for a month in 10 years.

Kohli endured a poor run in England across the three formats earlier this season - registering scores of 11 and 20 in the Edgbaston Test, 1 and 11 in T20Is and 16 and 17 in ODIs, before opting out of the team’s white-ball tour of the West Indies which included three ODIs and five T20Is.

“For the first time in 10 years, I didn't touch my bat for a month,” Kohli revealed in a video posted by Star Sports. I came to a realisation that I was trying to fake my intensity a bit recently. I was convincing myself that no, you had the intensity. But your body was telling you to stop. The mind was telling me to take a break and step back.”

Known for his supreme fitness and intensity, Kohli admitted that he realised his limitations in a period that offered him great life lessons. Having voiced strongly on the “mental health” subject in the past, the former India captain further stressed the importance of realising and admitting of going through a mental turmoil, rather than faking it.

"I'm looked at as a guy who is mentally very strong and I am. But everyone has a limit and you need to recognize that limit, otherwise things can get unhealthy for you,” he said.

“This period taught me a lot of things that I wasn't allowing to come to surface. When they eventually came up, I embraced it.

“I'm not shy to admit that I was feeling mentally down. This is a very normal thing to feel, but we don't speak because we are hesitant. We don't want to be looked at as mentally weak. Trust me, faking to be strong is far worse than admitting to be weak.” 

India will begin their Asia Cup 2022 campaign against Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, August 28.