Published: May 06, 2025, 07:06 PM (IST)
Edited: May 06, 2025, 07:07 PM (IST)
Former India captain and RCB’s star batter Virat Kohli has finally opened up about the heartbreak of India’s 2019 World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand. Speaking on the latest episode of the RCB Podcast on the franchise’s YouTube channel, Virat described the emotional aftermath of that defeat, saying he felt “dazed” and compared the experience to being in a hangover-like state.
That World Cup in England marked his third appearance in the tournament and his first as captain. Despite a strong run in the league stage winning seven out of nine matches, India’s campaign ended with a disappointing 18-run loss in the semis at Manchester.
After rain interrupted the first day of the semifinal, New Zealand resumed at 211/5 and managed to post 239/8. In response, India had a disastrous start, losing their top three batters for just five runs and slumping to 92/6. A fighting 116-run stand between Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni brought India back into the game, but the momentum shifted again when Dhoni was run out in the final overs. India ultimately fell short, bowled out for 221 in 49.3 overs.
Reflecting on that painful exit during the RCB Podcast, Virat Kohli, while recalling the joy of winning the T20 World Cup last year, said the 2019 loss hit hard. “2019 also was a massive. That was the first time, actually, after the semi-finals got over and the next morning we were going to leave Manchester. You know, when you wake up and you have no kind of understanding of what you want to do. Like, you are dazed. It was like the feeling you get when you have a horrible hangover. It was like that.”
“I had no idea what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to drink coffee, brush my teeth. Like, what is the next step? Like, I was completely gone. I could not make sense of it,” he added.
“Everything was fine. We had to play in the afternoon, and it rained, and then we had to come the next morning. Early morning conditions, this, that, and the others. I was like, what are the odds? But then again, how things unfolded. Again, so you have to kind of go back into that space of looking at things. You cannot get lost in what happened to me, and this is what I am going through,” he continued.
Virat reflected that perhaps everything unfolded the way it was meant to. England went on to win their maiden World Cup title in dramatic fashion, edging out New Zealand in the final based on a boundary count after the Super Over ended in a tie. He acknowledged that the win marked the peak of England’s white-ball cricket transformation under captain Eoin Morgan.
“You cannot make sense of these things, you know. You just have to accept things the way.
The 2019 World Cup turned out to be Virat Kohli’s last stint as India’s ODI captain. Following India’s early exit from the 2021 T20 World Cup, he stepped down from leading the side in white-ball cricket.In 2022, Virat also stepped down as Test captain, and after that, Rohit Sharma became the captain of the Indian team in all formats.
