India’s Test series against Australia ‘most intense disappointment’, says Kohli

Tuesday, 18 March 2025 01:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The talismanic batter relives experience of not coming out on top in recent five-Test series Down Under, despite scoring a century in first Test

Virat Kohli has conceded that India’s recent tour of Australia – a 3-1 loss for the visitors – induced ‘the most intense kind of disappointment,’ the likes of which he had only previously experienced following India’s Test series against England back in 2014.

Speaking at the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit ahead of the IPL 2025, Kohli stated: “If you ask me the intensity of how disappointed I’ve been, the most recent Australia tour would be the one that’s most fresh. So it might feel the most intense to me. For a long time, the tour of England in 2014 bothered me the most. But I can’t look at it that way. I might not have an Australia tour again in four years. I don’t know. You have to make peace with whatever’s happened in your life. In 2014, I still had the chance to go in 2018 and do what I did. It might not have been the case. It might have been another blunder. But it didn’t turn out that way.”

As India notched a famous win in the Perth Test to go 1-0 up in the series, Kohli starred with a sizzling hundred.

However, the 36-year-old was only able to bag another 85 runs from the remaining four Tests as Australia overtook India to seize the series 3-1 – winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade.

“Because I got a good score in the first Test, I thought ‘right, let’s go.’ There’s going to be another big series for me. It doesn’t turn out that way,” Kohli added.

“For me, it’s just about the acceptance of, ‘okay fine, this is what happened. I’m going to be honest with myself. Where do I want to go? What are my energy levels like?’ I’m not sitting here in 48 hours or 72 hours-time to make a decision like ‘let me go.’ Spend time with family. Just sit down. Let everything calm down. And see how I feel in a few days.”

Kohli also weighed in on cricket’s long-awaited comeback to the Olympics after 128 years at Los Angeles 2028.

The former India skipper, who called time on his shortest format career last year after India’s T20 World Cup triumph, was asked if he had been eyeing a return to feature at the Summer Games.

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