Yuvraj Singh identifies key to Virat Kohli’s journey to best batter of this generation

Kohli’s career hit new heights at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, where he topped the run charts with a record tally of runs. The stalwart batter walked away with the Player of the Tournament award despite coming into the event with his best years seemingly past him, and after an extended period where his frequency of making triple-digit scores reduced.

Kohli has set his eyes on the coveted trophy at the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 and will be featuring for the sixth time in the tournament. His first-ever appearance at the T20 World Cup was in 2012, five years after India achieved their only title win in the format.

Yuvraj said that Kohli deserved another World Cup medal after 2011, where he was part of the title-winning Cricket World Cup campaign.

“He has definitely broken all the records in this era,” Yuvraj said in a chat with ICC.

“The best batter of this generation, I feel, in all formats. And I think he is also someone who needs a World Cup Medal. He has one. I'm sure he is not satisfied with one. I think he surely deserves that medal as well.”

Kohli’s penchant for big knocks under pressure is well known and the T20 World Cup has witnessed some of his most impactful knocks, most notably two years back at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where he awed over 90,000 spectators with a finish like none other against arch-rivals Pakistan.

But the tournament has witnessed Kohli at his peak way earlier. In the 2016 edition of the tournament, Australia bore the brunt of Kohli’s ravishing form when he put on an exhibition at chasing targets down. An unbeaten 82 off 51 balls in a run-chase of 161 put India in the semi-finals of the tournament.

“I think he understands his game really well,” Yuvraj said.

“He knows if he's there till the end, he is going to win the game for India and he has done that on some big occasions - against Australia in Mohali as well.

“Once he had the confidence of chasing and knowing the situation, he knows how to bat in these situations, knows which bowlers to attack, which bowlers to take singles off, when to attack again, handle the pressure and knows when to change his game.”

While 2016 and 2022 are memorable for two of the best knocks the tournament has seen, Kohli’s best run came in the 2014 T20 World Cup, where he made the most runs he has made in any edition of the tournament.

Kohli made four half-centuries in six matches in the tournament that year and Yuvraj, who witnessed some of those knocks from the non-striker’s end, hailed his ball-striking in the tournament as “unbelievable”.

“I think he was outstanding. He was in one of the best forms of his life. He was hitting the ball unbelievably," Yuvraj recalled.

Kohli’s 77 in the final went in vain as Sri Lanka won by six wickets.

A decade later, the maestro has another shot at a title win when India travel to the Caribbean Islands and the USA to create history.

The Kohli of 2024 is not too different from his 2014 version. Currently the top-scorer in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League, the star batter declared his availability to play T20Is for India in the lead up to the T20 World Cup and will once again be the lynchpin in the batting line-up as India seek glory.

Kohli has had little trouble catching up with T20’s rapid evolution, scoring 542 runs this IPL 2024 at an average of 67.75 and a strike-rate of 148.08. What really makes him one of a kind? Yuvraj has the answer.

“Why I think he was so good was because every time in nets or a practice situation, he would not go and just slog balls,” Yuvraj describes.

“In the nets, he would always bat like he was batting in a match. He put that in repetition after repetition after repetition. I have not seen that in many players. I think that is the key to his success.”