In a recent interaction ahead of the T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli admitted that he had butterflies in his stomach ahead of his WC debut, which happened during the 50-over mega event in 2011.
Virat Kohli recently recalled his World Cup debut, in 2011, where he scored a magnificent 100 in India’s face-off versus Bangladesh in what was the 50-over mega event’s tournament opener. Ahead of India’s T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up game versus Bangladesh, on June 1 in New York, Kohli spoke about his WC debut, which came during his second year in international cricket. On Feb 19, India faced Bangladesh in the 2011 ODI WC opener, in Mirpur, where the then MS Dhoni-led India rode on Virender Sehwag’s 175 and Kohli’s 100* to post 370-4 and later won by 87 runs.
In a recent interaction on Star Sports, Kohli admitted that he had butterflies in his stomach ahead of his WC debut. He got a chance to play alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and the likes and, thus, was nervous.
Kohli told, “It was (World Cup debut) against Bangladesh in Dhaka (in Mirpur), my first game and I was nervous. Yes, I will not lie. There is a different sense of excitement in the air when you come for a World Cup and I could obviously sense that. I was the youngest member of that team and I was getting to play with all these greats of Indian cricket in a World Cup game.”
The former Indian captain further added, “For me it was definitely a moment where I was a bit nervous heading into the game and definitely the night before I was quite nervous but that is a good sign as well because your body is preparing you to enter a situation where you’re alert, you’re not taking things for granted. I think that nervousness helped me to be aware, be alert and be absolutely precise in the execution of my plans.”
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Kohli had a memorable outing where he slammed an unbeaten 100 off 83 balls (8 fours and 2 sixes) and was also involved in a mammoth 203-run third-wicket stand with Player-of-the-Match Sehwag (whose 175 was laced with 14 fours and 4 sixes). As a result, India stormed past the Bangla Tigers and later went onto win the 2011 edition, co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, by beating the Lankans in the final at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Since then, Kohli hasn’t looked behind and been India’s go-to-man in ODI WCs. He has 1,795 runs (second-most) in 37 games at an average of 59.83 with 5 centuries. He ended the 2023 edition, held in India, with most runs by a batter in a single edition (765). Even in T20 WC history, he is the leading run-getter with 1,141 runs from 2012-22.
Talking about India’s upcoming T20 WC campaign, in West Indies and USA, Kohli’s form will be crucial for Rohit Sharma & Co. India will begin their campaign on June 5 versus Ireland in New York. They are placed in Group A alongside Pakistan, USA, Ireland and Canada.
