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Star India batter Virat Kohli opened up on balancing his calm and aggressive personas on and off the field, saying that people have had problems with both of his sides and his competitiveness has "not gone down" despite him becoming more calmer presence on-field in recent years.
Virat was speaking on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. While Virat has become a much calmer personality on the field, he garnered controversy during the latest Border-Gavaskar Trophy for shoulder-charging a young Sam Konstas during his debut in the fourth Test at Melbourne and for his more taunting, in-your-face interactions with the crowd, which referenced to the 'Sandpaper Gate', the ball-tampering controversy which led to a one-year-ban on Australian stars Steve Smith and David Warner following a tour to South Africa in 2018. Speaking during the summit as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Virat said, "It is naturally kind of getting tapered down again," Kohli said about his on-field persona. "People are not happy about that either. I do not know what to do, to be honest. Earlier, my aggression was a problem, now my calmness is a problem. It is like, I have no idea what needs to be done, that is why I do not focus on it much," he added. "The kind of person I am, the kind of personality I have, yes, I do have tendencies to kind of go overboard. And I've never shied away from that. But the starting point is, okay, sometimes it might not have gone out with the right intent, but more often than not, the starting point has been of care. I want this all to be an event that helps my team win. That is why you see the celebration that I have when we pick up a wicket in a tight situation. Because I am like, yes, this is exactly what needs to happen. And I represent it like that," he continued. Virat said that his on-field persona always comes from the right place and he is currently getting tapered down naturally. "My competitiveness has not gone down. So, I think for a lot of people, it is very difficult to process how is the competitiveness going to be at the same level if the aggression is not. You can still be aggressive in your mind, but you do not necessarily need to express it out there every now and then out of frustration, which I have - I mean, in the recent past as well, which is not a great thing, to be honest, I don't feel great about those things myself," he concluded. Notably, Virat was part of India's ICC Champions Trophy winning team recently, emerging as the team's second-highest run-getter and overall fifth, with 218 runs in five matches at an average of 54.50. His standout knocks included a 100* against arch-rivals Pakistan while chasing 242 and a 98-ball 84 against Australia in the semifinals during a tough run-chase of 265 runs. He will be a part of RCB's IPL 2025 season, starting with the tournament opener against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) from March 22 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Not only would a maiden IPL title be on his target, but also a plenty of batting records. He is the highest-run-getter in tournament history with 8,004 runs in 252 matches at an average of 38.66 and a strike rate of 131.97, with eight centuries and 55 fifties. Last year, he had finished the season with an Orange Cap for most runs, with 741 runs at an average of 61.75, with an impressive strike rate of 154.69. He scored a century and five fifties and hit an impressive 38 sixes. His team qualified for playoffs last season after a horror first half where they won just one match out of eight, following it with a remarkable and inspirational streak of six wins to make it to the final four. (ANI)
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