With two ducks in a row coming before the third ODI against Australia at Sydney on Saturday, Virat Kohli had never scored consecutive ducks in his ODI career. Having scored 14,181 runs and being the third highest run-getter in ODI cricket prior to Saturday’s match, Kohli struggled in the first two ODI’s at Perth and Adelaide. With his unbeaten knock of 74 runs against Australia during India’s nine-wicket win over the hosts at Sydney, Kohli also overtook Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of 14,234 runs to have 14,255 runs under his belt and only behind Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 18,426 runs in ODI cricket. With former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri terming the two ducks of Kohli as ‘two ducks out of pond’, Kohli was quick to acknowledge that and to be ‘out of the pond’.
‘Good to be out of the pond, honestly. I am kind of lost. You scored so many runs in international cricket but then the game shows you everything even at this stage. You know, almost 37 in not many days and still feel like, don’t know how to get a run. I mean this game is amazing. That’s we love batting, we love batsmanship. It’s so challenging when it is not going your way and you have just to find your rhythm again. Of course, you know, going out there, having a situation to play, and always is something that always brings out the best in me. And yeah when Rohit is already batting already there, it is pretty easy to kind of keep rotating strike. You understand each other’s game pretty well. So again really good to have a good partnership and another match winning partnership for us,” Kohli said while replying to Shastri on JioHotstar.
After captain Shubman Gill fell for 24 runs, the duo of Kohli and Sharma stitched together an unbeaten second wicket partnership of 168 runs to set up the nine-wicket win for India. With more than 5500 runs being scored by Kohli and Sharma together in ODIs, the two veteran batters have been the mainstay of Indian batting order since more than once decade. When asked about the key to the duo’s understanding and the form batting together, Kohli shared how the duo had an understanding right from their early days of playing together for India.
“I think from very early on, it was pretty clear that we both understood the game really well. That’s the only reason that you can play for so long when you have an understanding of the situation. Your own game and how to apply it in different situations. That’s something that we have always taken a lot of pride in and when back together, we understand we are probably the most experienced players now. But even back in the day, we used to think that if we have a big partnership, the kind of strokes we play, we can really take the game away from the opposition. And it is just about communication and staying in the game. I think it all started from the 2013 series against Australia at home. When we started getting those big partnerships together and really took the game on. From then on, it was pretty clear. The opposition also knew that these guys are there for 20 overs together, any total is chasable and you know the game is never in the opposition’s favour. So I have really enjoyed batting with Rohit. Good to score a few together,” said Kohli.
With this Australia tour perhaps the last tour of the duo to the country together, the duo were asked about the experience of playing in Australia and the duo termed the country as a place where they have played some of their best cricket.
“Yeah thank you as well. We have loved playing in this country and playing in front of these big crowds. We have played some of our best cricket here as well. Thank you very much for welcoming us so well. And you guys are brilliant. We have never felt short of support here,” Kohli said Sharma too echoed the same. ‘Thank you, Australia,” shared Sharma.
