Virat Kohli will feature in his fourth ODI World Cup as Team India look to end a 10-year drought for an ICC trophy. Kohli, who made his World Cup debut in 2011, was part of the MS Dhoni-led team that defeated Sri Lanka to lift the trophy in Mumbai. After overcoming a tough patch, Kohli has been in great form in ODIs this year, scoring five centuries, while also becoming the fastest batsman to register 13,000 runs in the format. With a total of 47 ODI centuries, Kohli is on the verge of surpassing his idol Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 as he looks set to take charge of India at the World Cup.
Reflecting on his difficult period, Kohli said the last few years have been a huge learning curve for him.
“The last two and a half years have taught me a lot. Those angry celebrations are a thing of the past. I’ve had a lot of suggestions, a lot of advice has come my way; people told me I was doing this wrong, doing that wrong,” Kohli told the ICC.
“I looked through all the videos of the best time I had, same starting movement, same approach to the ball and it was exactly what was happening in my head, I couldn’t explain it to anyone,” he added.
With veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin added to the Indian squad as a replacement for Axar Patel, Kohli is the second player from the class of 12 years ago to be part of the Indian squad this time.
India World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
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