India’s Virat Kohli scored his first T20 International century in a Asia Cup Super Four contest against Afghanistan on Thursday, ending a wait for the three-figure mark that extended back to November 2019.

He reached the milestone with a four and six off pace bowler Fareed Ahmad to get a ton after nearly three years – his last hundred coming in November 2019 in a Test against Bangladesh.

Reactions to Virat Kohli’s 71st international century – ‘The King is back’

Match blog: Asia Cup 2022 – India vs Afghanistan

Speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar for broadcasters Star Sports after the innings, Kohli spoke about the break and how his wife Anushka Sharma played a crucial role in helping him find the right perspective.

The celebration said a thousand words...

It was indeed, I feel very blessed, very grateful right now. The last two and a half years or so, it’s taught me a lot. I’m going to turn 34 in November. So celebrations are all from the past. I’ve put a lot of things in perspective. And yeah, actually I was a bit shocked because this was the format I least expected a century to come anytime soon. But look, it is all God’s blessings. I’ve been working hard and this was just a moment which was very special for me and for the team as well.

Emotions when he scored the century...

Well, it was an accumulation of a lot of things. As I said, when I came back into the team, the team has been really open and welcoming and helpful and given me space to work on my game. I know there was a lot of stuff going on, on the outside, but they really kept my perspective right. And I kissed my ring in the celebration as well. You see me standing here like this right now because all the things that have been put in perspective has been done by one person who stood by me through all these difficult times. That’s Anushka... and this 100 is specially dedicated to her and our little daughter Vamika as well.

The nuts and bolts of coming back to form in this manner...

When you have someone next to you having conversations, putting the things in right perspective, like Anushka has been on by my side through all these times... time away from the game taught me a lot of things. When I came back, I wasn’t desperate. I was grateful for what God blessed me with before, you know. People are talking about me not getting a hundred, but I looked at how much he’s given me already. So that really calmed me down, that relaxed me and I was just happy to come back after six weeks off. I was refreshed. I understood after taking a break how tired actually I was mentally and physically. Your competitiveness doesn’t allow you to take that call. But I think it was a blessing in disguise for me and I wanted to be the best version of myself, for the team. And when I came here when I started playing in the nets, I felt like my old rhythm was coming back. And it was just about getting those performances in the middle again.