'It does become...': Kohli's 'brutally honest' reply to Dravid's question on century drought - WATCH

Virat Kohli ended his Test century-drought during the just-concluded fourth and final Test between India and Australia in Ahmedabad. During the drawn Test match, the former Indian captain top-scored with a brilliant 186 as he ensured India took a 91-run lead after Australia posted 480. While the Test ended in a tame draw, Rohit Sharma-led India won the 2022/23 Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 and entered the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final.

After the Test match, Kohli interacted with India's head coach Rahul Dravid in a video shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) official Twitter handle. In the clip, Dravid asked Kohli if it was 'hard' for him to have not managed to score a hundred in red-ball format since late 2019. To this, Kohli had a brutal yet heartfelt response.

The 34-year-old Kohli said: "To be honest, I've led the complications to grow on me a little bit because of my own shortcomings. I think the desperation to get the 3-figure mark is something that can grow on you as a batsman. We've all experienced that at some stage or the other. I think I led that happen to me to a certain extent."

"But also the flip side to it is that I am not a guy who is happy with 40 or 45 runs. I am someone who always takes pride in performing for the team. It's not like Virat Kohli should stand out. When I am batting on 40, I know I can get a 150 here and that will help my team. That was eating me up a lot. Why am I not able to get that big score for the team because I always took the pride in performing for the team when it needed me, in difficult conditions and difficult situations," he further opined.

'Everyone is saying we want a hundred. So, it's like, it does play on your mind'

Kohli asserted, "The fact that I wasn't able to do that was bother me. Not so much the milestone as such as I don't play for it. A lot of people ask me this question, 'how do you keep scoring a hundred?'. I always told them, a hundred is something that happens along the way within my goal which is to bat as long as possible for the team and get as many runs as possible. So, the milestone is never my focus. But yes, I have to be brutally honest, itdoes become a little complicated because the moment you step out of the hotel room, right from the guy outside the room to the guy in the lift to the bus driver, everyone is saying we want a hundred. So, it's like, it does play on your mind."

"But I think that's the beauty of playing so long as well, to have these complications come and over come these challenges. When it comes together, like it did in this game, that gives you an extra gust of air to go beyond, go further and start enjoying cricket a lot more and be excited for what's to come. I am just happy that it happened at the right time, before the World Test Championship final. I will definitely be going there pretty relaxed," concluded the former Indian captain.

Kohli will be eager to score another ton in India's next Test match, which will be the WTC final versus Australia at The Oval, London on June 07. Under him, India lost the inaugural WTC finale to New Zealand and, hence, he will be eager to guide India to the elusive title this time around. Currently, he is gearing up for the home ODIs versus Australia before IPL 2023's commencement.