T20 World Cup 2024: Virat Kohli reminisced about his World Cup debut at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, where he made an undefeated 100 against Bangladesh.
Travelling back in time to the ODI World Cup in 2023, Virat Kohli made his stage debut there. Only in his second year of playing for his country, Kohli took against Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament on February 19 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
After being allowed to play alongside players such as MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, and others, Kohli acknowledged that he experienced butterflies in his stomach. Before India's T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up match against Bangladesh on June 1 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, Kohli reminisced about those occasions.
"It was against Bangladesh in Dhaka, my first game and 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. 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,” Kohli said in an interview with Star Sports.
With eight fours and two sixes in an undefeated hundred off 83 balls, Kohli produced an innings to remember. Additionally, he shared a 203-run partnership with Sehwag, who tormented the opposition bowlers with a 175-brick. Since then, Kohli hasn't looked back, amassing 1795 runs at an average of 59.83 from 37 matches, including five hundred.
"For me, it was definitely a moment where I was a bit nervous heading into the game and definitely 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 absolutely precise in the execution of my plans," he added.
When the Men in Blue take against Paul Stirling's Ireland on June 5 to begin their T20 World Cup campaign, Kohli is anticipated to be a key player.