‘Sachin played six World Cups and then he won, I won it in first time’: Virat

“Sachin Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It was time we carried him,” said Virat Kohli after the MS Dhoni-led Indian side ended a 28- year-long wait to lift the ODI World Cup. They beat Sri Lanka in the 2011 ODI World Cup final in Mumbai. Kohli was only 22 then but he had already shown signs of becoming a future leader. Like many (perhaps all) budding Indian cricketers, Tendulkar was Kohli’s idol too. The great man left no stone unturned for his country and achieved almost every batting record possible but the one thing that continued to elude him was the World Cup trophy. He was not a part of the young team that won the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007. The wait came to an end on April 2, 2011. In his sixth edition – the most by any player – Sachin Tendulkar finally managed to lay his hands on the coveted trophy. There were others in the team Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, and Zaheer Khan who were playing their third World Cup. The likes of Gautam Gambhir, S Sreesanth, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, and Ravichandran Ashwin were playing their first ODI World Cup but the youngest member of the team was Virat Kohli. This was his first ICC tournament in any format and he emerged as the winner in first attempt. Recalling the fateful day in a podcast with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the franchise for which Kohli plays in the IPL, the former India captain said he did not even expect to be selected for the World Cup. “I was lucky enough to be part of that team and what led to my selection was also amazing because I had a run of great scores and I ended up being in the team. I never expected it to happen. When things are meant to be. Sachin Tendulkar was playing his sixth World Cup if I am not wrong. And that was the one he won. And That was my first time and I ended up being on the winning side,” he said. A couple of years later, Kohli was a member of the Champions Trophy-winning side in 2013 but since then he hasn’t managed to win any ICC tournament either as a player or as captain. That, however, doesn’t bother Kohli. “I’m not mad about my trophy cabinet being full. That’s always been a by-product of the kind of discipline you have,” he said. The prolific right-hander still continues to be India’s most successful Test captain. His whiteball record as captain is stellar too if one takes out winning the ICC trophy as a parameter. And Kohli knows that. He reminded the ones calling him a “failed captain” by saying that he has built a culture in the Indian team, which takes years to form. “You play to win tournaments but that’s not all. A lot was made of it, to be honest. I captained the Champions Trophy in 2017, captained the 2019 World Cup, Test Championship in 2021 and we failed to qualify for the semifinals in the 2021 T20 World Cup. We reached the finals of the 2017 Champions Trophy, the semis of the World Cup (2019), and the final of WTC but I was considered as a failed captain. I never judged myself from that point of view. What we ended up achieving as a team, the cultural change that took place, for me, is always going to be a matter of pride. A tournament happens for a certain period but a culture happens for a long period of time. For that, you need consistency, and for that, you need more character than winning a tournament. I’ve won the World Cup as a player, and I’ve won the Champions Trophy as a player. I’ve been part of a team that has won five Test maces. If you look at it, there have been people who have never won a World Cup.

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