India batter Virat Kohli has opened up on why he needed to have a break and how he was feeling mentally down, and was trying to "fake" his intensity. In an interview with broadcaster Star Sports, Kohli opened up on why he needed to have a break and how he was trying to fake his intensity."For the first time in 10 years, I did not touch the bat for one month. I came to the realisation that I was kind of trying to fake my intensity a bit recently, you know you can do that, you are competitive and you are saying I have the intensity but your body is telling you to stop and it is telling you to take a break and step back. I am looked at as a guy who is very mentally strong and I am. Everyone has a limit and you need to recognise that limit otherwise things can get unhealthy for you," Kohli said.
This period taught me a lot, you know many things I was not allowing to come to the surface. When it surfaced, I embraced it. I am not shy to accept that I was feeling mentally down, it is a normal thing to feel but we don't speak because we are hesitant, we don't want to be looked at as mentally weak or weak people. Trust me, faking to be strong is far worse than admitting to be weak," he added.Further talking about his intensity, Kohli said: "I am a person who wakes up and feels like let's see what the day has for me and be part of everything that I am doing through the day with absolute presence, involvement and happiness. That is who I have always been, people ask me a lot how do you deal with this on the field and how do you carry on with the same intensity. I just tell them I love playing the game and I love the fact that I have so much to contribute and I would give my every inch on the field.""To me, it never felt abnormal and a lot of people on the outside and even within the team, ask me how do you keep up with it. I just say one simple thing, I want to make my team win at any cost and if that means, I am gasping for breath when I walk off the field, so be it. That's the kind of preparation I go through, to be able to play like that. That was not happening naturally, and I had to push myself. But I just did not know it," he added.
