Virat Kohli recalls his ICC World Cup debut: ‘I was the youngest member…I was nervous. Yes, I will not lie’

India will play Ireland in their first fixture of the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. The side’s talisman Virat Kohli is among the experienced players in the squad and will be playing his ninth World Cup (4 ODI and 5 T20I). On the back of a fruitful Indian Premier League campaign, the 35-year-old would be hoping to have yet another productive World Cup campaign in his career next month.

Kohli made his World Cup debut 13 years ago in the 2011 World Cup against Bangladesh in Dhaka. “I was the youngest member of that team and I was getting to play with all these greats of Indian cricket in a World Cup game,” he recalled on Star Sports. “I was nervous. Yes, I will not lie. There is a different sense of excitement in the air when you come for a World Cup and I could sense that.”

Kohli scored 100 runs from 83 balls and remained unbeaten. “For me, it was a moment where I was a bit nervous heading into the game and the night before I was quite nervous but that is a good sign as well because your body is preparing you to enter a situation where you’re alert, you’re not taking things for granted. I think that nervousness helped me to be aware, be alert, and be precise in the execution of my plans,” Kohli said.

On different levels in T20 World Cups

Though Kohli has been a consistent performer for India in ODI World Cups, his consistency in the T20 World Cups for India was unreal. He has the most runs in the history of the T20 World Cup scoring 1141 runs. The talismanic Indian batter has been an absolute beast in the marquee event, scoring over a thousand runs across five editions.

Kohli’s ability to thrive under pressure and deliver match-winning performances has cemented his reputation as one of the finest batters in T20 cricket. He holds the record for most runs in a single edition of the tournament — 319 in 2014. He was also sensational in the 2016 edition, scoring 296 runs.

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