Bengaluru: Former India skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday asserted that once he stops playing cricket, he will go away from everything for a while, but until then he wants to give everything to what he loves doing. He also stated that he wants to give everything he has to his cricket career so as not to have any regrets.
Kohli's appetite for runs and centuries has already got him a record eighth ton in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season and he continues to lead the scoring charts with 661 runs from 13 games for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), which played a vital role in keeping his franchise's hopes to qualify for the playoffs.
In a video posted by RCB on social media, Kohli said, "So, it's just about not leaving anything behind and not having any regrets later, which I'm very sure I won't. Once I'm done, I'll be gone; you won't see me for a while. So, I want to give it everything I have till the time I play and that's the only thing that keeps me going."
The 35-year-old, who led India to title triumph in the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, was picked by RCB in the inaugural season of the cash-rich league and he has been playing for the same franchise for the past 17 years. During the clash against Delhi Capitals (DC), he became the only cricketer to play 250 IPL matches for a single franchise.
"I think, as sportsmen, we do have an end date to our careers, so I'm just working backwards, I don't want to finish my career thinking what if I had done this on that particular day because I can't keep going on and on forever," he added.
Virat Kohli, who is the leading run-scorer in T20 World Cups, will be travelling to the USA and West Indies for the T20 World Cup beginning next month. He has featured in five T20 World Cups (2012, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022) and has won the player of the tournament awards in 2014 and 2016 editions. Notably, he is the only man on the planet to win the prestigious award twice and so far.
The right-hand batter has featured in 113 Tests, 292 ODIs, and 117 T20Is. He has scored over 26,000 international runs across formats. Kohli holds the record for most runs in the history of T20 World Cups with 1141 to his credit. India is placed in Group A of the tournament, alongside arch-rivals Pakistan, Ireland, Canada and co-hosts USA.
They will begin their campaign on June 5 against Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York before taking on Pakistan on June 9.
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