"It’s going to get you no matter how much you block out the noise" - Robin Uthappa excited to see Virat Kohli back in form

Veteran batter Robin Uthappa reckons that Virat Kohli is well and truly back in form after his maiden T20I hundred against Afghanistan on Thursday, September 8, in Dubai.

Kohli looked in a good rhythm right from the start of the Asia Cup 2022. He scored a couple of half-centuries before finally breaking the shackles against the Afghans. The ace batter remained unbeaten on 122 runs off 61 balls, hitting 12 boundaries and six maximums.

Uthappa feels that century will peel off the burden from Kohli's shoulders. Speaking on ESPNCricinfo at the end of the game, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter stated:

"Yeah, well and truly. You've got to understand that no matter who you are, irrespective of what your records have been in the past, if you go for three years or 1000 days without having a hundred for someone who scored 70 hundreds before that yeah it’s going to get you no matter how much you block out the noise.

"It's gonna weigh on you, it's gonna be a burden on you and to break free of that must be very relieving for him."

Uthappa added:

"You could see when the camera was on him on certain times, when they were fielding, him taking size of breath, you can actually tell physically that he looked lighter. It seems like something's off his chest, finally.

"From a cricketing perspective, very very happy for him because as a batter you understand what that feeling is like, you resonate with it. Irrespective of what circumstances this came under you can be well and truly secure that he's back in form."

Cheteshwar Pujara, who has seen Kohli from close quarters over the last three years, asserted that it's not possible to cut the outside noise completely. The Test veteran highlighted that taking a break from the West Indies and Zimbabwe series has worked wonders for the former Indian skipper.

Speaking in the same video, Pujara stated:

"Well, when you speak to him it looked like he was able to cut down the outside noise but I mean I've gone through some of it, I know that it's not easy to cut it down completely. So back of your mind, no matter how much ever you try, it still plays on your mind and I think he has been fighting that.

"He has said that he has been trying to fight that but now I don’t think he should be worried about anything else now uh since he's he has scored this hundred. But yeah it hasn’t been easy. He has gone through a tough time but I think this break of five or six weeks that he took helped him a lot I think. He said does this before the Asia Cup started that he needed that break and I think it has done wonders."

Kohli finished the continental tournament as the highest run-scorer with 276 runs, including a century and two fifties, at an average of 92.

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"Mentally he will be much more relaxed now" - Cheteshwar Pujara on Virat Kohli's mind space

Kohli, whose last international ton before the Afghanistan game came in 2019, will be in a better mind space ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia next month.

Pujara feels the same, saying that Kohli will be mentally relaxed after notching up his 71st international hundred. He added:

"I think his flow is back. The way he's batting, the way he's timing the ball. We have seen even in not just this innings, but even the 50 which he got, I think his rhythm is back and he will be relieved now.

"I think there are times where a player is mentally, you know, they feel that they haven't been scoring a lot of runs but with this hundred, I think mentally he will be much more relaxed now."

Kohli will next be seen in action against Australia in the three-match T20I series, which gets underway on September 20 in Mohali.

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