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Virat Kohli & Nasser Hussain (Source: Twitter)
Virat Kohli enjoyed one of the finest years of his career in 2023 in which his fans witnessed another peak of their favourite. A nearly three-year 'career-best' lean patch has seen him lose complete touch but has slowly won back the tags of run-machine, chase master and ton machine from mid-2022. He returned to his usual job of scoring runs and centuries for fun while helping his team win matches.
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In 35 international innings in the 2023 season, Kohli's MRF bat produced 2048 runs at an average of 66.06, including eight centuries and 10 half-centuries. Notably, three of those centuries came in the 2023 ODI World Cup - a tournament in which Kohli broke various records. He broke Sachin Tendulkar's two big milestones - becoming the first player to score 50 ODI centuries and the most runs in a World Cup edition.
He is in a good mental space: Nasser Hussain on Kohli
Meanwhile, former England captain Nasser Hussain pointed out that while all the records broken by Kohli got attention, we missed enjoying the beauty of his batting. He added that the 35-year-old is in good mental space and it bodes well for him and India.
“He had a fantastic 2023 and he had a fantastic World Cup. (For) all the records that he broke and the attention he got, actually what we didn't focus on was how well he was batting technically,” said Hussain.
“I have not seen Virat bat as well as that. The sound off the bat. In the innings in Mumbai against Sri Lanka, I can name about five innings, but he was getting in such good positions. So that is a really good sign for Kohli and India and Virat Kohli fans because I think that means he is in a good mental space and his game is in order,” he added.
Kohli ended 2023 with a gritty half-century against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test. On a difficult surface to bat on, the right-hander scored 38 off 64 balls in the first innings and 76 off 82 balls in the second innings. His one-man fight on Day 3 was not enough for India to script history in the rainbow as they lost by an innings and 32 runs.