Virat Kohli recalled his first India appearance against Pakistan, which came during the 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa. However, the 36-year-old revealed that he feared for his career after failing to perform in the high-octane clash, which India lost, raising self doubts of whether he would succeed at this level. For the unversed, Kohli wasn’t part of the initial squad for the tournament, and only received a last minute call to join the team in South Africa following a fingury injury to legendary all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
“I played my first series in Sri Lanka, and then I was left out of the team for a while because I had come into the team in place of Sachin paji, who had a niggle. And then when he came back, there was no space left for me. So I had to wait for my chance again. Then came the Champions Trophy 2009 in South Africa. Yuvi pa got a finger injury, I think he got a fracture or something, and then they called me. They used to tell me, keep your suitcase with you, keep your clothes packed and keep your passport on you at all times. I was always a standby, so they called me over. I was in Bangalore, actually. They asked me to fly over immediately,” said Kohli, while speaking on the latest episode of RCB Podcast.
Kohli got out after trying to hit Shahid Afridi for a six. Kohli recalled that he couldn’t sleep that night, fearing that his India career might be over.
“So when I went over, the very next game I played was Pakistan in three days. That was my first India-Pakistan game. I think about scored about 16 or something. I tried to hit Shahid Afridi for a six straight down the ground in Centurion, and I got caught. We lost that game. It was an important moment in the game, and my heart was beating so fast throughout that whole innings.”
“I just could not process everything that happened within a span of four days. And I remember us losing that game because it was a big loss. I just could not sleep. I stayed awake until five in the morning, staring at the ceiling. I was like, ‘This is it.’ I’ve been called after a year, and I’ve just messed it up. I don’t know how this is going to shape up. I had a lot of moments like that where I really, really doubted myself and had to again kind of recalibrate and find a way to slowly build up again and just try to focus on what is in front of me and what might go wrong in whatever amount of time,” he added.
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