Virat Kohli since making his debut has rarely failed in a series numerous time. His consistency in all three formats has been remarkable in the last decade. When Kohli was 25, the only country where he hadn’t scored a Test century was in England. Before the series the hype for Kohli was insane and the English crowd were looking forward to seeing him batting in the five-match Test match series.
Kohli, unfortunately, put too much pressure on himself and failed miserably in the Test series. He was regularly getting dismissed while defending deliveries outside the off-stump. Especially against James Anderson he was found wanting and could not even score a single fifty.
Tendulkar helped me a lot post-2014 tour – Kohli
He ended the series with a total of just 134 runs at an average of 13.5. This was the first major blip in Kohli’s rising career and he had to do some soul searching after the disastrous tour.
From 2014 to 2018 – How Virat Kohli turned it around 💪@imVkohli chats with @mayankcricket on how he put behind his failures in England with technical inputs from @sachin_rt and @RaviShastriOfc and came out all guns blazing in 2018 🙌👌
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 24, 2020
Full video 📽️👉 https://t.co/yNMw87SR4z pic.twitter.com/m6zCPftcTC
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli admitted that he will always remember that 2014 tour as a career milestone in his career even after having a poor series. He also shared how his conversation with Sachin Tendulkar also helped him erase some weaknesses in his game.
“2014 is always going to be a milestone in my career. People often take good tours are milestones but for me that 2014 tour to England is the milestone in my career,” Kohli told Mayank Aggarwal on ‘Open Nets with Mayank’ on BCCI website.
He added, “When I came back I spoke to Sachin paaji and did a few sessions with him in Mumbai. Ravi bhai too had called me and Shikhar to his room as he also wanted to have a word with him on something and we had practice session as well.”
“So the moment I started doing that with my hip alignment, things started ironing out pretty nicely for me. I became more and more confident with following that patter,” said Kohli.
The Indian skipper conquered all the demons of 2014 and dominated England in the Test series in 2018. Kohli was the leading run-scorer in the Test series and ended with 593 runs at an average of 59.3. It was only after this series Virat Kohli became the No.1 Test match batsman for the first time in the ICC rankings.
“If that tour hadn’t happened, I would have continued batting probably the same way I was. I wouldn’t have improved. That 2014 tour really made me think how I wanted to approach my career, Do I just want to be a pushover every time I played Test cricket”, concluded Kohli.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli was last seen on the field earlier this year against New Zealand. Amidst IPL certain of taking place in UAE later this year, Kohli will be captaining the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise. Several reports suggest that IPL will be held from September 19- November 8 in 2020.