'I Asked Him For A Few Minutes, But We Talked For Four Hours: Jemimah Rodrigues Recalls Meeting Virat Kohli

Young India women’s batter Jemimah Rodrigues revealed how former India captain Virat Kohli talked to her for four hours when the duo met in a café, despite her asking for a chat for a few minutes only. Rodrigues also said that she was with Smriti Mandhana at that time and Kohli chatted to them about cricket for hours.

Virat Kohli does not shy away from sharing the wealth of knowledge that he possesses. The former India captain is the first to talk to up-and-coming youngsters. You would often spot Kohli sharing his wisdom with young cricketers – be in during the IPL or international matches.

Smriti Mandhana And I Had The Opportunity To Talk To Him: Jemimah Rodrigues On Speaking With Virat Kohli For Hours

A similar instance was narrated by India women’s batter Jemimah Rodrigues when she and Smriti Mandhana received undivided attention from Virat Kohli for not a few minutes, but for hours as he talked about cricket to the two wonderful talents of the Indian team.

“Smriti and I had the opportunity to talk to him. We had asked him ‘we want to speak to you Virat bhaiya about batting. Can we meet?’. We were in the same hotel in New Zealand. He was like ‘yeah sure, come’. So he called us at the cafe and Anushka Sharma was also there. We had asked him for just a few minutes but we ended up speaking for four hours. We spoke half an hour about batting but after that it was just normal things,” Rodrigues said on ‘The Ranveer Show’.

21-year-old Rodrigues also revealed valuable advice she received from Virat Kohli when she asked him about handling the pressure of expectations and what helps him thrive in pressure situations.

She said: “A lot of things were spoken. We spoke a lot about batting so I think I am privileged like that. I get to meet such people. At the right time, we met them and they’ve actually inspired me and helped me at that phase I was in.

I asked him about how to handle expectations. I told him ‘You are Virat Kohli. If you’ve scored a fifty, it’s like you have underperformed for people. So how do you handle that expectation?’ He said ‘for me every time I am out there on the field, I just look at the scoreboard and just focus on it. Do that and don’t focus on crowd and what I can do to help India win. If I stop giving these expectations importance, and just look at the process, the results will automatically follow.”

Kohli will play his 100^th Test when India and Sri Lanka will clash in the first match of the two-Test series in Mohali from March 4^th.

Also Read: Don’t Think The Team Is Fully Prepared For Next T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli’s Childhood Coach Rajkumar Sharma