Virat Kohli credits AB de Villiers and Anushka Sharma for his return to form

Indian captain Virat Kohli roared back to form in the second T20I against England, scoring an unbeaten 73 off 49 deliveries to help his team egister a comfortable 7-wicket win.

After the game, Virat Kohli credited his wife Anushka Sharma and talked about a 'special chat' with South African star AB de Villiers for helping him come out of his poor form. Virat Kohli revealed that De Villiers told him to keep things uncomplicated and simply watch the ball, something that worked wonders for him.

"I had to shift the focus back to the basics. Probably thinking of too many variables on the outside. I've always taken pride in doing the job for the team, so more happy about that than scoring 70 odd. Kept my eye on the ball. The management spoke to me about things. Anushka is here, so she also keeps speaking to me about things. And I had a special chat with AB de Villiers before this game, and he told me just to watch the ball. So I did!" said Virat Kohli.

Virat Kohli was going through a worrying run in international cricket before this game. The 32-year-old got out for nought in the last T20I, which was his third such score in his last five innings across formats.

On Sunday, Virat Kohli took a different approach and returned to his tested method of plucking singles and doubles early in his innings before teeing off with boundaries. Suddenly the oomph was back, as the right-hander smacked five fours and three outstanding sixes during his knock, helping India chase down the target of 165 with 13 balls to spare.

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Virat Kohli hails Washington Sundar and Hardik Pandya's performances

Washington Sundar

Virat Kohli also commended all-rounders Washington Sundar and Hardik Pandya for their contributions in the win. Sundar took two wickets for 29 runs, while Pandya's figures of 0-33 certainly belied his outing with the ball. He said in this regard:

"Quite a good game for us. I think we ticked all the boxes we wanted to. Specially in the first innings with the ball. To give away only 34 in the last five, it was very smart bowling by all our bowlers. Special mention to Washy, he had only one left-hander to bowl to in the middle overs, and he changed pace and used the big boundary really well against the right-handers better. Then Bhuvi, smart operator, Shardul bowled well at the end; Hardik chiped in; Chahal was good as well."

Virat Kohli further elaborated:

"Credit to Hardik that he's bowling at least three overs for us in every game. And in the next six to eight months period, he has promised he's going to commit everything to being the all-rounder the team needs in all three formats. He plays for the team in all times, and these kind of players are priceless. England showed how good they were in the first match, so you have to be professional and finish the job properly. That's what we did tonight."

With the series now level at 1-1, the third game on March 16 at the same venue is set to be another cracker.