Virat Kohli, former India captain and Royal Challengers Bengaluru star, opened up about India’s devastating loss in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal against New Zealand. Speaking on the RCB Podcast released on the franchise’s YouTube channel, Kohli revealed the mental state he experienced following India’s 18-run defeat at Manchester, describing it as a “dazed” and “hangover” like feeling.
The 2019 World Cup was Kohli’s third appearance in the tournament and his first as captain. India had dominated the league stage, winning seven out of nine matches, with one loss and one rain-affected game.
The semifinal against New Zealand was played across two days due to rain. New Zealand posted 239/8 after resuming at 211/5 on the reserve day.
India’s chase got off to a disastrous start, losing their first three wickets for just five runs. They were further reduced to 92/6 before Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni sparked hope with a 116-run partnership.
The match slipped away from India’s grasp when Dhoni was run out in the closing stages. India was eventually bowled out for 221 in 49.3 overs, falling short by 18 runs.
“2019 also was a massive. That was the first time, actually, after the semi-finals got over and the next morning we were going to leave Manchester. You know, when you wake up and you have no kind of understanding of what you want to do. Like, you are dazed. It was like the feeling you get when you have a horrible hangover. It was like that.”
“I had no idea what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to drink coffee, brush my teeth. Like, what is the next step? Like, I was completely gone. I could not make sense of it.”
“Everything was fine. We had to play in the afternoon, and it rained, and then we had to come the next morning. Early morning conditions, this, that, and the others. I was like, what are the odds? But then again, how things unfolded. Again, so you have to kind of go back into that space of looking at things. You cannot get lost in what happened to me, and this is what I am going through.”
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“You cannot make sense of these things, you know. You just have to accept things the way. Of course, accepting is very hard, to process it is very hard, but you have to get to that point and you have to keep moving.”
England eventually won the World Cup, defeating New Zealand in the final on boundary count after a tied Super Over.
Kohli finished as India’s second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 443 runs in nine innings at an average of 55.37, including five fifties and a top score of 82.
Rohit Sharma was the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 648 runs at an average of 81.00, scoring five centuries and a fifty.
Other notable Indian performers included KL Rahul (361 runs), MS Dhoni (273 runs), Jasprit Bumrah (18 wickets), Yuzvendra Chahal (12 wickets), and Hardik Pandya (226 runs and 10 wickets).
The 2019 World Cup was Kohli’s last ODI tournament as captain. He stepped down from T20I captaincy after the 2021 T20 World Cup group stage exit and later relinquished Test captaincy in 2022.
Rohit Sharma subsequently took over as India’s captain across all formats.
