India captain Virat Kohli, who smashed an unbeaten 73 off just 49 balls and became the first player in men’s cricket to reach 3000 T20I runs, has revealed that he had a special chat with former South Africa international AB de Villiers after the start of the second T20I against England.
De Villiers’ suggestion worked wonders for Kohli as he guided his team to a 7-wicket win over Eoin Morgan & Co. in the second encounter on Sunday.
Who else could it have been?@imVkohli became the first player to score 3000 runs in men's T20Is last night 👏#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/iK87PmnCNF
— ICC (@ICC) March 15, 2021
The first batsman to score 3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ T20 international runs 🙌🏻🔝
Whaddaplayaaa 👑👌🏻@imVkohli #TeamIndia 🇮🇳 #INDvENG @Paytm pic.twitter.com/C8zxhBjtmX
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 14, 2021
The Indian skipper also mentioned that his wife Anushka Sharma and the team management helped him to stay in the right space when things were not favouring him.
At the post-match presentation, Kohli said: “I had to shift the focus back to the basics of the game and I always take pride in doing the job for the team. Just kept my eyes on the ball and my wife is here and she keeps telling me a lot of things of what I need to do. We have a great management that keeps us in the right space.”
“And also I had a special chat with ABD (AB de Villiers) before the start of the game and he just told me to watch the ball. That’s exactly what I did,” the 32-year-old added.
Over the years, Kohli and De Villiers’ friendship has blossomed with every IPL season. Both have been a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) camp for a long time now and came close to lifting their maiden trophy in the 2016 IPL edition before ending as runners-up.
The duo will reunite in the 14th IPL season, starting from April 9, as RCB will take on the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in the season-opener at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
