When it comes to rousing a crowd to shout for him, it’s arguable that no one has ever matched India’s, Virat Kohli. But, Kohli claims that in 2018, a crowd of 35,000 people booed him during the test match in Edgbaston, England.
In the second season of the Royal Challengers Bangalore podcast, Virat Kohli made a shocking admission. Early in his career, Kohli earned a reputation for being a very aggressive player. His temper has now cooled down.
James Anderson
“My heart was pumping because all I could think of was the flashes of 2014. I walked in, and there were about 35,000 people at the stadium, and they all started booing the moment I entered the field. My heart started beating faster. They have this amazing ability to create an environment where you feel like I have got no chance here,” Kohli recalled the incident of being booed by a massive crowd.
What did Virat Kohli say about his battle with James Anderson?
Statistics supported this claim. In the 2014 Test series, the swing bowler for England was responsible for the dismissal of Kohli at least four times. With just 134 runs scored in five Test matches and ten innings, Kohli’s trip was a dismal failure.
The English crowds on Kohli’s 2018 visit to the country were eager to bring up the Indian batter’s impressive track record in English conditions. In 2018, though, Kohli might use the stage to make a bold statement.
“I remember James Anderson was the guy running with the ball, and I was like, what are the odds here I am facing the first ball from him again after four years. In my mind, I was like ‘please just play the first ball and he bowled it at the fourth stump and I left that ball’. I became calm after that first ball and then I got dropped at 22,” Kohli said, adding that “I could have got out on 22 in that innings but I got 149 and I didn’t look back from there, so that’s when you realised that you just can’t sit there and crib about things that didn’t go right. There are a lot of things that went right. So much weight was lifted from my shoulder.”
With a respectable batting average of 48, Kohli has scored 8195 runs in 106 Test matches, including 27 hundred. He also has one hundred in T20Is and forty-six hundred in ODIS.
