Cape Town: Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Saturday said that he felt that he is unaware as to why every India-South Africa clash is labelled as a duel between him and Proteas star batsman AB De Villiers.
Both Kohli and De Villiers play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and the Indian captain has always held De Villiers in high regard.
“It’s not like only two guys are playing in this series. AB is a great friend of mine. I respect the way he plays the game and I have always respected him as a person as well. But, when we are playing against each other — it’s not that we cross the line with each other, we are just not like that,” said Kohli when asked about his duel with De Villiers.
He also said that merely dismissing De Villiers wouldn’t be enough for India to win the Test matches.
“It’s just that we want to get AB out and the opposition will want to get me out or Pujara or Rahane. The mindset I don’t think there is any different in terms of the mindset in any of the batsmen in the side.
“Every player wants to be the stand out batsman and make contributions towards the team winning. Unless you have that as a group, you don’t have too many chances of winning a series. Some people may have brilliant individual performances and then you will be fine with one or two people doing well,” elaborated Kohli.
The 29-year-old further stated that his team is hungry to put up a good performance against a quality side like that of South Africa.
“Right now, the hunger we have in the group, everyone wants an opportunity to perform and that’s very exciting. I can’t speak for the opposition because AB hasn’t played much Test cricket since he played against us and he’s coming back after a while.
“But, look, setting apart all the spice created on the outside, the team that plays well together for a longer period of time has a better chance of winning the series,” said Kohli.