Kolkata: The Sunday sun will see a completely new Virat Kohli, who would now be the Indian cricket team captain of all the three formats, soon after MS Dhoni handing him over the coveted position of limited overs captaincy the month before.
The benchmark set by Kohli’s predecessor, would be the new hurdle to overcome and conquer to prove his worth as a limited over skipper. The Champions Trophy to be played in England in June, will decide its jurisdiction.
While the tournament is five months on the knock, Kohli has only the England ODI series to find out the best combination. Kohli is sure to have an adrenaline pump when the vehement crowd in the backdrop well echoes, as he walks out for the toss with England skipper Eoin Morgan in the first match of the three-ODI series at the MCA Stadium here.
“We are not going to experiment much. We are going to find the right combination from Game One and then stick to it till the Champions Trophy,” made known the new skipper in his first press conference after taking over the control from captain cool.
The three-ODI series at home will provide Kohli a showdown of the areas that need to be fastened and worked upon, even after India encountering different conditions at the Champions Trophy. Yuvraj Singh was recently selcted for the three-match One-Day International series against England which will commence on Sunday.
Yuvraj last played an ODI in December 2013 against South Africa at Centurion. The duo of Dhoni and Yuvi had made a mark of half centuries, in the warm-up match against England in the Brabourne stadium, Mumbai.
Kohli also has in his mind the necessity to make changes to the middle order. “Yes, that is something we have discussed before picking Yuvi because we cannot leave so much burden on MS alone in the middle order. I am willing to shoulder responsibility up the order, but there needs to be one more guy with him down the order. If the top order doesn’t fire, you are left with MS alone guiding the youngsters. It would have been fine if you had 15-20 games till a big tournament, but when you have only three games to prepare for a big tournament, I think you need to get all your resources in place. You need to make sure the guys who have been picked are in good form,” he said.
“So right now we don’t have the time to nurture that one spot as much because we have a big tournament coming up straightaway, that’s why Yuvi was brought into the team. This just gives the team much more balance in the middle and lower-middle order. MS and Yuvi can really guide Kedar (Jadhav) and Hardik (Pandya),” Kohli added.
(With inputs from Agencies)