After achieving pinnacle success in all formats of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli finds himself at a point in life where his enjoyment of the game and his excellence matter more than appeasing others. During a candid chat with Star Sports, the cricketer opened up about his mindset when playing ODI cricket.

“I promised myself I was going to play more freely. I’m not going to worry about the expectations that people might have around me. Because my role always has been, for a long period of time, that he is going to stabilise things. So what happens is, I know I can play, but the demands of a tricky situation…you try to do something extravagant, and you barely survive. But now I am choosing not to take a risk, because I’m setting up eventually to get to a point where I can say, ‘press the accelerator down’.” Kohli shared during the interview.

Darshita, a clinical psychologist at Mpower Aditya Birla Education Trust, says Virat Kohli’s recent comments about letting go of expectations offer an interesting insight into something many of us experience—not just athletes.

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Virat Kohli plays in the Indian national cricket team. (Source: Instagram/@virat.kohli)

Changing relationship with performance

According to her, the strongest angle isn’t that Kohli has stopped caring about expectations, but that he has shifted from outcome-focused pressure to process-focused performance. “This is not necessarily about caring less or lowering one’s standards. But about changing the relationship one has with performance; he appears to be separating his effort from the pressure to constantly prove himself,” she tells indianexpress.com.

From a psychological perspective, this distinction matters.

“When we become overly focused on an expected outcome, our attention can shift away from the task itself. Part of our mind starts monitoring the consequences of failure, other people’s reactions, and whether we are living up to expectations. That creates additional cognitive and emotional load,” Darshita shares, further explaining that an athlete may know exactly what they need to do technically, but under excessive pressure, the mind can become preoccupied with the result rather than the next ball.

“Letting go of expectations does not mean becoming indifferent. It means recognising what is within our control and what is not,” she adds.

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Proving vs expressing

The expert adds that another psychological shift is happening here: moving from ‘I have to prove myself’ to ‘I want to express what I can do’. While the first mindset is often driven by evaluation, the second is driven more by engagement.

Darshita says that his approach also highlights something important about high achievement. “Striving for perfection vs striving for excellence is not the same thing. Excellence does not necessarily require constant pressure. Sometimes, after years of proving what you are capable of, the next psychological step is learning that you do not have to prove it every single time,” she further explains.

Experience can also bring a deeper shift. “With maturity and experience, there is a sense of recognition that while preparation and effort are within our control, the final outcome is not always entirely within our control,” the expert reiterates. And psychologically, that can create a sense of freedom.

Perhaps that is the paradox of high performance. “When we stop carrying the constant burden of having to prove ourselves, we create more space to actually perform at our best,” she concludes.

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