Ind vs WI – 1st ODI – Virat Kohli determined to unlock a new version of himself

At 37 years old, in a career that has spanned two decades and reached glittering highs, Virat Kohli has been challenged to “unlock a new version” of himself and the results of that have been on show. The India batter ticked off 15,000 ODI runs on Sunday and raised his 55th – and third-fastest – century in the format as he tore into the West Indies bowling attack.

“I got a challenge at this stage of my career to kind of up the ante and, you know, play a gear to higher end,” Kohli told the host broadcaster. “Yeah, that was exciting for me to work on. Again, it excites you when you have to unlock a new version at this stage of your career, which will eventually help, you know, anything that you play for, be it playing for India or in the IPL. It’s really helped me a lot to play with a free mind and I think that’s what’s working for me.”

Kohli hit a six within his first five balls (a top edge) in Thiruvananthapuram and kept hitting them, finishing with nine in the innings, which became a new personal best. He supplemented that with 10 fours including three back-to-back in the 29th over of the 296-run chase that took him past 15,000 runs. He is the second person to the landmark after Sacin Tendulkar.

“My focus has never really been on these milestones, so to say. It’s just understanding the situation along the course of just doing the job for the team, whatever, you know. Achievements come along, obviously I feel very grateful and very blessed to be in this position for having played for so long. And, yeah, just keeping my head down, working hard and thanking God for everything that I’ve been blessed with.”

Kohli’s batting in 50-overs cricket used to be about mitigating risk and setting himself up to play as long an innings as possible. That desire still remains – ahead of this series, he told JioHotstar about wanting to hit the winning runs in the 2027 World Cup final – but it is balanced with a new need. Once he believes he is set, he wants to do everything he can to pick up the maximum runs off every ball he faces. In 2026, having scored 523 runs in seven innings, he’s hitting a boundary roughly once every 7.59 deliveries.

To play like this, Kohli has a few boxes that he likes to check, starting with his conditioning. “I think to follow a free mind, you need a fit body. So for me, it works the other way around. I stay physically fit and then I’m able to visualise the game in the way that I want to play, which allows me the best chance to go out there and execute in the way that I did tonight.

“The game’s more or less in the mind. I’ve never been one to practice a lot, even, you know, when I was playing all the formats. So it’s just for me about staying mentally fresh, staying in the present moment and just expressing myself really out there to, you know, play in a certain way. Get used to this template more often.”

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