Virat Kohli loves playing Australia. There is no question about it. He not only loves playing in the Down Under but have a legion of Aussie fans who are fascinated by his approach, which is traditionally associated with champion sides and players from Australia.
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Hobart saw one of the great ODI centuries back in 2012 as Virat Kohli – who turns 3️⃣4️⃣ today – produced a truly remarkable innings 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CJBKdnEop0
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 5, 2022
Be it the infamous ‘fingergate’ incident in Sydney, his first overseas Test century in Adelaide, his stunning 86-ball 133 against Sri Lanka in the ODI match in Hobart or winning the Border-Gavaskar Test series in 2018-19 as a captain, Kohli has owned the Australian shores.
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The Australian media and former cricketers are still gushing over his epic performance, the 82 not out against Pakistan at the MCG– a knock straight from the Australian playbook of winning games that seemed lost at one stage.
A packed MCG chanting for Virat Kohli 🏟
Raw vision: Behind the scenes of India’s sensational win 📹
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Goosebumps. #T20WorldCup | #INDvPAK pic.twitter.com/MNjmOLKO7r
— ICC (@ICC) October 23, 2022
Chappell brothers (Ian and Greg) are yet to digest his two sixes against Haris Rauf. Greg Chappell in a column for the Sydney Morning Herald has declared his innings as “A song of god,”, and he struck a metaphor from the book Bhagavad Gita to describe his October 23 heroics.
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It is not surprising that Kohli, too, likes playing in Australia. In a video shared by the BCCI.TV, he said: Australia doesn’t feel alien anymore.”
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“Pata nahi kya hai yaar, ek comfortable feeling aati hai yahaan pe aa ke (I don’t know what it is, but i feel really comfortable whenever I come here).”
“Yahaan pe ek cheez maine dekhi hai na yahaan pe agar aap perfrom karo toh ek respect milti hai aapko, appreciation wo mujhe abhi pata chalta hai. Not just Indian fans but the locals too. (I have noticed one thing recently that if you perform here, you will be appreciated by the lcoal fans as well).
“Local Aussies fan ko khushi hoti hai mujhko dekh kar. Mereko out of place kabhi lagta hi nahi hai Australia mei. Mai ghoomta hun toh aisa lagta hai yaar ki apni jagah hi hai ye (The local Aussie fans approaches me like I am one of their’s. I never feel out of place here. It feels like home away from home for me),” he added.
With 220 runs in four matches, Virat Kohli is the leading run-getter of the T20 World Cup. He also speaks about his camaraderie with Rohit Sharma and the mood in the Indian camp.
“Rohit and I have a similar vision – to make India win.’ It’s very free-flowing, it is all pointed towards main goal,” he said.
“Baat toh special yahi hoti hai ki humey bada tournament kaise jeetna hai. Preparation, planning to sab us hisaab se hi hoti hai. Team ka mahool bahut acha hai aur jab aisi camarderie aur mahool hota hai toh aap excited hote ho khelne ke liye. (We generally talk about how to win the big tournaments. How we should execute the preparation and planning. When you have such kind of camarderie and environment in the team, you always feels excited to play the game.) You look forward to do anything for the team,” he added.
India will play their last Super 12 game against Zimbabwe in Sydney on Sunday.
