Virat Kohli thanks Rohit Sharma, coach Rahul Dravid for giving him the clarity to just let him bat

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Dubai, Sep 9: Former India captain Virat Kohli slammed his maiden T20I century in the Super 4 encounter against Afghanistan and ended the wait for his 71st international century. The 34-year-old showcased his batting prowess as he constructed his innings brilliantly and remained unbeaten on 122 off 61 deliveries at the Dubai International Stadium.

With that century, Kohli finally broke the jinx and that mental barrier of being unable to get to that elusive milestone was breached. Riding over Kohli's ton and Bhuvneshwar Kumar's five-for, Team India hammered Afghanistan by 101 runs. With his knock of 122, Kohli surpassed his successor Rohit Sharma to own the highest individual score by an Indian T20Is.

While interacting with Rohit in a special video posted on BCCI.TV, Kohli thanked his team and coaching staff for always supporting him through his lean phase.

Starting the conversation with his predecessor, Rohit said, "Virat bahut badhai aapko. Aapka 71st hundred... Pura India wait kar rahi tha. I'm sure India se zyada aap wait kar rahe the. Jo time apne spend kia hai itne salo mein apne game ko khelte hue. Hume toh pata hi tha ye milestones honge. Ye century special hai kyuki hume jeetna tha. aapne gaps acche dhunde, acche shots mare, sahi bowler ko target kara. Apne innings k baade mei bataiye, kaisa tha, kaisa shuruwat hua aapka. (Many congratulations to you Virat (on your 71st international hundred). Everyone in India was waiting for your 71st hundred but I'm sure your wait was bigger. The kind of hard work you were putting in, we all knew that these milestones would come but this century is special because we needed to win. You played great shots, found the gaps, targetted the right bowler, so tell us about your innings)."

Kohli was left in splits as Rohit spoke non-stop Hindi for 56 seconds and later shared his views after getting to his maiden T20I century.

"Itni shuddh Hindi bol raha hai mere saath pahli baar. (You are talking to me in pure Hindi for the first time)," Kohli said laughingly in the candid conversation.

Speaking about his performance in the entire tournament and in the dead rubber against Afghanistan, Kohli told Rohit, "Personally, since I've come back from a break where I didn't touch the bat for the longest time in the 13-14 years I've played, a lot of things were put into perspective."

"I got a lot of clarity from you guys (pointing to Rohit) and the team management, to just allow me to bat. That was very important.

"I'd spoken to Rahul [Dravid] bhai three-four days back while batting first, especially the middle overs phase, how I can improve my strike rate. My only goal was to work on whatever I need to improve, I will try it at the Asia Cup. I honestly didn't expect it [to score a T20I century]. I was shocked, [and] as you also mentioned after that, no one expected a century from me in this format after a long time. I was pleasantly surprised, grateful and honest."

Talking further about his good form in the Asia Cup 2022 - where he scored 276 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 147.59 - Kohli said, "My aim was to always to play all three formats, and I banked on good cricketing shots," he said. "I always came to every tournament or series thinking six-hitting is not a big strength of mine. I can [hit sixes] when situation demands, but I'm better at finding gaps and hitting boundaries, so as long as I can hit boundaries, it will still serve the purpose for the team.

"I told the coaches as well that I'm going to try and hit gaps rather than thinking I've to hit sixes to improve strike rates in T20 cricket. That thing I removed from my system in this tournament, and that helped because I was able to come back to my template. But it's about being in a good space and enjoying your batting.

"We can play in many ways, but my role is to play as per the situation and if it demands I have to take the scoring rate higher, I should be able to do it. My aim was if I can be in this zone, I can be relaxed because I know if I'm set for 10-15 balls, I can accelerate. I'm very happy that especially from the team's point of view, I'm back to being in my template I've played for a while, which I was going away from because I was desperate to do something that wasn't my game."