to fight my way up again this is an emotional question i know your dad meant a lot to you i

know he passed away in 2006 but the next day after that happened you went to a domestic
cricket match and played what would make a virat kohli do that what was he thinking i i
honestly i was blank that morning and i called my coach and and um he was quite obviously
quite understanding of the situation um and he asked me what you want to do and my first
instinctively my answer was i want to go and play
for me leaving a cricket game in the middle of of me batting overnight was just not an option
at all if i hadn't started the game that's different but for me to leave a cricket game in in the
middle of it was something that i could not even imagine so um leaving my team like that i i i
felt like it it was not fair to the game that i love so much and you know that that's literally my
life in seoul my father would have wanted me to do the same so it was just a no-brainer for
me and i told my family my family was a bit surprised that i wanted to go and play and i was
i just went into a zen mode and i just went out there and and things just just started flowing
again as i said and these are the times that make you realize that this is exactly what you're
meant to do and everything that happens in your life from here on are going to be this this
through this source called cricket um so the whole journey the the kind of matches that have
happened the kind of knocks that have happened the kind of you know moments that have
happened that people have looked and said wow i want to do the same it's it's literally me
making an impact on other people through this game um so that's when i realized this is my
journey and and I need to do things in a very organic in a very very pure way because when
you watch it on tv you can tell the difference between someone trying to fake it or someone
playing with heart and you obviously want to repeat the same i saw that in my heroes so i
thought look this is this is exactly what i need to do in life there was not even a moment of
doubt you take the under 19 world cup and then you're jumping and there's aggression you
take 2021 world test championship there's a weekend is it probably the eighth weekend which
is innocuous but you still have the same aggression that feistiness is what is
there on the ground but off the field you're a very different person but do you think the
spiciness brings out the best in you every time you step on the field for india and for your
franchisees well for me a game of cricket is about making your team win um i can very well
enjoy the process of batting in nets i can very well very well smile and have fun and you
know fun and games but when you mean business you mean business um in life i i don't have
to compete with anyone i'm not i'm not in a space in in everyday life where i i have to be
feisty or aggressive but for me one thing was always and always very clear when i step onto
the field