'I feel really grateful, I feel really blessed. I never imagined I would get to this stage in my one-day career but it has happened and I am thankful to God,' Virat Kohli said
Pune: India captain Virat Kohli admitted that he never thought he would achieve the 10,000-run milestone in ODIs and said he was "really blessed" to have scaled another peak.
In the second ODI against the West Indies on Wednesday, Kohli constructed his 37th ton (157 not out) in 50-over internationals and on way to the three-figure mark, shattered Sachin Tendulkar's record.
Kohli completed 10,000 ODI runs in 205 innings, thus becoming the quickest to the milestone, surpassing Tendulkar, who had taken 259 visits to the crease to set the record.
In an interview with the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) website, Kohli said it was a “great honour” for him to play for India and added that he wants to maintain the hunger for scoring runs.
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“It is a great honour for me to represent my country. Even after playing for 10 years I don’t feel like I am entitled for anything here. You still have to work hard for every run that you score at the international level, because there are a lot of people who want this very badly. When you are in that position, you should have the same hunger and not take anything for granted,” Kohli said.
The Delhi right-hander, who made his ODI debut in 2008, said it was his duty to remain fully committed while playing for the nation.
“If I have to dive six times in an over, I will do it because it is my duty and that is why I have been selected in the team. It is not doing anyone a favour or showing that I am committed, it is just about doing it for the team. That is my only intent,” he said.
SPECIAL: India captain speaks about scaling mount 10K and why the team will always hold prime importance before personal milestones. DO NOT MISS THIS - by
Interview Link 📽️ 👉 - https://t.co/IFmGUsG6uB pic.twitter.com/aWlyUNSbjz
The 29-year-old, who is one of the fittest cricketers in the world, was philosophical and said he was “really blessed” to have set another record.
“I feel really grateful, I feel really blessed. I never imagined I would get to this stage in my one-day career but it has happened and I am thankful to God. These things do not matter much but to understand that you have come this far in your career after playing for 10 years it something very special to me because I love the sport so much and you want to play it more and more and that for me is the most important thing. I am just happy that I have been able to play for this long and hopefully many more years to go,” the number three batsman said.
“I never thought I could achieve this feat or I would get to this stage. I always thought that I wanted to play for India. I never thought that this day would arrive. It just tells me that if you stay focused on the process and stay focused on the right things then these things become irrelevant after a while,” he added.
The skipper said it was his duty to score runs for India.
“My duty is to score runs and having done that for a long period now, everything has collected together for this moment. But the intention always is to look for what the team needs and score as many runs as possible. I have been able to push my physical and mental abilities by focusing on what the team needs and in that process more runs have been scored than otherwise,” he said.
Despite Kohli’s century and record-breaking feat, India could not win the match in Visakhapatnam as the Windies pulled of a thrilling tie. The teams will now face off in the third ODI in Pune on Saturday. The hosts hold a 1-0 lead in the five-match rubber.
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