Virat Kohli exclusive: India captain talks to Dinesh Karthik about captaincy, his will to win and fitness

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Watch Virat Kohli’s full interview during the first England-India test starting Wednesday on Sky Sports; India’s captain talks about changing his fitness, boosting the culture within his side and performing at the highest level

In an exclusive meeting with Sky Sports’ Dinesh Karthik prior to the India Test series in England, Captain Virat Kohli talks about his cricket mentality, discussing his fighting attitude on the field, his thought process while hitting, his devotion to the fitness, leadership. , social networks and more. Here’s Kohli in her own words …

“For me, a game of cricket is about making your team win. I can really enjoy the process of hitting the nets, smiling and having fun, but when you’re serious, you’re serious.

“In life I do not have to compete with anyone. I do not have to be a fighter or aggressive. But when I enter the field I will give 120 percent in every game I play and no one can count that against.” I’m going to play this way and this is who I am.

“I will not sit still waiting for people to do something that I can’t do first. Each ball is an event and I will throw myself around each ball throughout the Test Match, even if it is in 90th on the fifth day.

“Every moment is an opportunity to make your team win and that’s exactly why you step on the pitch. You have to make that time count. Our careers are so short anyway, even if you play for 20 years. field, you make the most of it.

“I like to let things flow. I don’t necessarily seek to put filters or restrictions because I feel like I have to be myself, my organic self. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but should I change? Not at all.”

“When I enter the field, I have to believe that I am the best. I am not going to allow anyone to think that I am easy prey on the field. It is not disrespecting anyone, it is believing in my own abilities.”

“Fine, you’ve got the ball in hand, but if you’re wrong, you know you’re going to run. If you take me out and cast a great spell, my hat is off. But next time I’ll be here. Again, so make sure you bring your game A. That’s the mindset at this level.

“If you show any vulnerability or fear, they will devour you. I have to be as brave as I can. If I go out, I want to go out on my terms. I could also make a silly mistake and I know this is what I need to correct.

“I don’t go out there to prove anyone wrong, but I put myself in a position where I want to do special things and win special series. If 50,000 people in a stadium feel it can’t be done, I’ll challenge myself to say it can. .

“I have seen it several times where my conviction about how I see the situation has been much more powerful than the doubts of thousands of people in the same place. In any situation, I think I can do it.

“It happened in 2012. I thought ‘in this IPL I’m going to dominate everyone’, but the IPL started and some games didn’t go my way.

“My mentality completely fell to the other extreme. I was eating everything in sight. I was eating horribly, sleeping horribly, my habits were all over the place.

“When I finished the IPL, I went home, got out of the shower the first day, looked in the mirror and was ashamed. It was like looking at another human being.

“I said to myself ‘if you want to play cricket at the highest level, this is not the way you can get by.’ From the next day I changed my entire diet and my way of training. From then on it was an obsession. “

“I have achieved what I wanted as a leader, which is to create a culture where people strive for excellence every day. In each practice session, no one wastes time and that is very, very important to me.

“I’d rather have an hour of quality practice than lurk for two hours playing for an hour in between. I don’t see anyone doing that anymore.

“He is absolutely accurate, absolutely professional. You know that if you want to play for India you have to be fit.

“After MS Dhoni left, cricket evolved: the pace of the game started to move higher and we moved with the times. The results of the last five or six years are there for all to see. We are probably the only one. team in world cricket everyone mistrusts when we travel. “

“I know for sure that people are affected by this, they take it very, very seriously, but to me that is just noise.

“Those are letters written by someone in a comment section, so why should I bother someone? Why give so much importance to a person that you have no idea who they are? Stay true to who you are and realize your own potential .

“Use social media for the right reasons and don’t let it control you. You are in control of how much you want to see it. If you’ve posted things, you don’t need to bother if a thousand people abuse you online.

“I have been booed regularly by 40,000 to 50,000 people when I walk into the stadium. If I start to focus on that, I can’t play a ball. It’s an opportunity to say, ‘Things are against me, let me prove how good I am.’ I think the same can be applied with regard to social media. “

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