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'Desperation to get that three-figure mark can grow on you' - Virat Kohli opens up on his 75th international hundred in fourth BGT Test

Virat Kohli spoke at length about his long-awaited Test hundred in the 4th Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Here are the full quotes.

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Virat Kohli opens up on his 75th hundred

Virat Kohli opens up on his 75th hundred (Source: Twitter)

The fourth Test match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad saw the long-awaited Test century by India batsman Virat Kohli, which took 1205 days to complete. According to Kohli, the fact that he had not recorded a century in a Test match in more than three years bothered him and made life challenging.

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"If I will have to be brutally honest, it does become a little complicated and difficult because the moment you step out of the hotel room, right from the guy outside the room to the guy in the lift to the bus drivers, everyone was saying 'we want a hundred.' So it does play on your mind all the time," he told head coach Rahul Dravid during an interview.

"But that's the beauty of playing cricket for so long as well, to have these complications and to overcome these challenges and then it comes together nicely as it did in this game, then that gives you the extra confidence to go beyond and go further and start enjoying the cricket a lot more," he added.

Virat Kohli says the century would help him stay relaxed before the Test Championship final

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With his 186 runs, Kohli helped India gain the upper hand in Ahmedabad and ultimately secure a spot in the Global Test Championship final at The Oval in June 2023. He built significant partnerships with Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat, and Axar Patel.

"I am happy that it came at the right time, just before the Test Championship final, and I will definitely be going there very relaxed and very excited," he added.

Kohli elaborated on the significance of his hundred, emphasising its importance for the team and him personally. India won the series 2-1, even though the fourth Test was drawn.

"To be honest, I have led the complications to grow on me a little bit because of my own shortcomings. I think the desperation to get that three-figure mark is something that can grow on you as a batsman; we have all experienced that in some stage or the other. I let that happen to me to a certain extent, but also, the flip side to it is that I am not a guy who is happy with forty and forty-five. I have always been someone who takes a lot of pride in performing for the team."

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