"I was thinking I need to play at 3 pm tomorrow" - Virat Kohli on facing Sri Lanka in less than 24 hours

Team India cricketer Virat Kohli revealed that playing another game within 24 hours was going on in his head while he was batting against Pakistan in Colombo on Monday. Incidentally, the Men in Blue will play another Super Four game against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, starting from 3.00 pm IST.

The India-Pakistan game was forced to the reserve day after rain played spoilsport on Sunday and only 24.1 overs were possible. Thus, the Men in Blue will have to play two 50-over games on consecutive days.

Kohli was in scintillating form, smashing his 47th ODI ton to close in on Sachin Tendulkar's 49 hundreds. The right-handed batter remained unbeaten on 122 runs off just 94 deliveries and made nine boundaries and three sixes in the process.

He also became the fastest to 13,000 runs in 50-overs cricket, achieving the feat in 267 innings. Kohli leapfrogged Tendulkar, who achieved the landmark in 321 innings.

Speaking at the end of the match, Virat Kohli stressed the need to have enough recovery time between two games.

"I was pushing for those runs and happy for it, but I was thinking I need to play at 3 pm tomorrow," Kohli said. "Luckily, we are Test players, I've played over a 100 Tests so I know how to come back and play the next day. It was really humid out there, I'm 35 in November so I need to be taking care of that recovery as well."

Kohli also revealed that he was extremely tired and jokingly requested the host to keep the interview short.

"I was going to ask you to keep the interview short, I'm very tired," he continued.

India will want Virat Kohli to recover quickly and be ready for the clash against Sri Lanka. Rohit Sharma and company will want to continue their winning momentum and take one step closer to the Asia Cup 2023 final.

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"I take a lot of pride in trying to push for easy runs" - Virat Kohli on rotating strike

Out of 122 runs scored by Virat Kohli, 68 came from running between the wickets, including 38 ones and 15 twos.

The former Indian skipper asserted that his job was to rotate strike and he takes a lot of pride in running between the wickets.

"I'm always prepared to help the team in different ways," he continued. "Today, KL got a great start and my job was just to rotate strike. I take a lot of pride in trying to push for easy runs, pushing for a double is as easy as they come."

Speaking of the game, India posted a mammoth total of 356/2 in their 50 overs. In response, Pakistan could only manage 128, with Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah not coming out to bat due to injuries. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the Indian bowlers, returning with figures of 5/25.