“We’re in mid-2026,” Kohli said. “I’ve been asked so many times, ‘Do you want to play ’27?’ Why would I leave my home, get my stuff over, and be like, ‘I don’t know what I want.’ Of course, if I’m playing, I want to play cricket, I want to carry on. Playing a World Cup for India is amazing.”
“Today, my perspective is very clear,” Kohli said. “If I can add value to the environment that I’m a part of and the environment feels like I can add value, I’ll be seen. If I’m made to feel like I need to prove my worth and my value, I’m not in that space.
“Because I’m being honest to my preparation. I’m being honest to how I approach the game. I put my head down. I work hard. I’m very thankful to god for giving me everything that I’ve been given in my cricketing career. I feel very blessed and grateful for the opportunity. And when I arrive to play, I put my head down, I work as hard, if not harder, than anyone else. And I play the game in the right way. You want me to run from boundary to boundary for 40 overs in an ODI game, I will do that without a complaint. Because I prepare accordingly.
“I prepare for the fact that I will field 50 overs every ball like it’s the last ball I’m going to play in my career, and I will bat that way and I will run between the wickets that way, and I will do everything possible for the team. After operating like this, if I have to be in a place where I have to prove my worth and value, that place is not meant to be for me. And I am very clear in my head from that perspective.”
“The moment I feel like people are trying to complicate it for me and be like, oh, but this and that, either be clear and honest upfront or be quiet and let me play”
Virat Kohli
Kohli said he was now playing just for the joy of playing and not to prove himself to anyone. “That’s why when I went back to play, I was very clear in my head: I’m not going out there to prove anything to anyone,” Kohli said. “I’m going to play because I love playing the game. That’s how I played the Vijay Hazare [Trophy] as well.
“It was amazing. There was not a person in the [BCCI’s] Centre for Excellence [in Bengaluru]. Firstly, I thought I’ve played for so long and will it be motivating enough? But the moment my intentions switched to ‘I want to play because I love playing; I just love batting and I just want to focus on that’, I could not care [less about the stage]. It’s not like I didn’t field. I fielded the whole game, and I was diving around, and I felt like a child again. I was like, ‘This is not about anyone else, this is about me and the game and that’s what it’s going to be’.
“And the moment I feel like people are trying to complicate it for me and be like, oh, but this and that, either be clear and honest upfront or be quiet and let me play.”
Kohli didn’t specify whether these “people” were the outside voices or the managements he plays with. “Look, if you go to your workplace, and if people say we believe in your abilities, and then a week later they start questioning the way you operate, it’s like, why?” Kohli said. “Either tell me on day one I’m not good enough or I’m not needed. Or if you’ve said I’m good enough and you say we’re not even thinking otherwise, then be quiet.”
Kohli called for assessments not to be based on results alone because “no one can guarantee performance in any space”. “If you start operating up and down because of results, you can never have a consistent stance,” Kohli said. “And I’m not someone who behaves like that. As I said, when I come to play, I know what I can deliver in terms of effort.
“No one can guarantee performance in any space. But in terms of effort and commitment, I know what I can deliver because I literally live my life like that.
“It’s not like I prepare for a series to suddenly start working hard two or three weeks before. I’m like that through the year. So if you call me to play and if you say there’s a series coming up, I’m ready. I’m always ready because that’s my daily life. I work out, we eat well at home. It’s because I like living that way. It’s not only to play cricket. So that’s where I am.”
