Mumbai: After India’s failure to fend off spin attack of Rangana Herath in the Galle test, the team had invoked criticism as media questioned the team’s ability to dominate the spinners. Since, it is expected that the Green Park pitch of Kanpur to be a turner and will assist the spinners, Virat Kohli was asked to respond on it.
Virat Kohli said the team is not worried about it but will be working on this aspect as they will not want to give any opening to the opposition. “I think it’s not a concern,” he said but acknowledged that “It is an area where we can improve.”
The skipper believed that they lost the Galle Test in Sri Lanka because they could play spin as they would have liked. “We did not execute our batting plans against spin in Sri Lanka, but we rectified that. The team wants to improve on that aspect of the game, something we surely needs to get strong. We countered conditions really well away from home — England, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, we focused on pace, so we didn’t pay that much attention on spin. That was one area where we feel that we could have worked or should have worked more.”
“Now we are putting in more efforts to bat against the spinners longer. We are practising the small little things. We are covering all bases because if you want to be a champion side, you don’t want to give the opposition any window to get into the game and that’s an area that needs to be worked on through the course of this season. Good thing is that we are playing a lot of Test cricket,” he said.
India will be playing long home season of 13 Test matches and Virat Kohli believes that his team has the potential of becoming world’s best.
“We believe we certainly have what it takes to be the best in the world. One area where we have tapped into is belief. Lot of young players coming into can lack belief, there could be a lot of insecurities, whether I’ll play in the next game or whether my position is settled or not. So, it’s all about getting rid of all those feelings,” said Kohli.
Virat Kohli believes New Zealand to be tough competition and showed a lot of respect to the Kiwi side. “We expect very good competition and hard fought cricket. They are a side that does not give up. They have pretty skillful players in their ranks, we are wary of that but we are aware of our strengths as well. Both need to focus on their strengths and don’t hand the advantage to other teams,” Kohli said.
The Captain felt that players have stepped up to replace injured players in the past and similarly somebody will emerge successful in the absence of Ishant Sharma. Kohli said he believes this long-run of Test matches is going to be defining moment for the team’s Test future.
The skipper evaded the question of his bowling combination for the match as he did not want to become predictable. “I think you can’t go with one set of combination or one track mind, it’s not logical in the longer run. You become predictable. You have to field the bowlers depending on the condition. We have to assess the workload on bowlers,” said Kohli.