Be ruthless, relentless: Kohli
SOUTHAMPTON: India skipper Virat Kohli expects his team to be ruthless and relentless and not fail to capitalise like the squad of 2014, which squandered a 1-0 lead to lose the Test series.
“We probably didn’t have the experience to capitalise on the lead (1-0 after win at Lord’s) is how I see things four years down the line,” he said of India’s tour of England in 2014. “Right now we understand that we are in a very exciting position and have gained momentum at the right time in the series — to have played like that when 2-0 down, when everyone thought that it is going to be a clean sweep.
“We spoke about being ruthless, relentless and capitalising on those important moments, which we did in Nottingham. We’ve to do that two more times to achieve the goal we want to, and not be satisfied with one victory. If Nottingham was hard work, this is going to be harder because England would want to come back strong.”
The India skipper felt spin will play a role on the Ageas Bowl wicket. “If the pitch is like it was in Johannesburg, we will have no doubts about playing an all-pace attack,” he said, referring to the third Test in South Africa in January, which India won on an uneven pitch. “I don’t think this pitch is anywhere close to that. The last time we played here, spinners came into play in the second innings. The surface is pretty hard and once it wears out, there can be big footmarks and the spinners can get a lot.”
Kohli heaped praise on his pace bowlers, saying they have been delivering regularly and that is helping the team win matches.
“You feel very confident when you see bowlers doing very well. We’ve been talking about it for a while now that even if you score 800 or 1000 runs in Test matches, if you don’t take wickets, victory won’t come.
“If you take 20 wickets, you will get a win or at least a draw. Instead of focusing on the batsmen, we’ve been focusing on the bowlers on how to take 20 wickets. That’s why we’ve playing with five bowlers for a long time now. If we don’t play five bowlers, our chances of taking 20 wickets narrow.
“We don’t think we are at a disadvantage when it comes to pace bowling. We think we are equal to any team in the world and if we play well, we can win anywhere.”
Kohli said even if the Ageas Bowl wicket is a bit green, the India batsmen won’t be flustered and make radical changes.
“I don’t think there’s any need to change the way we’ve played so far in this series. If the wicket is behaving totally different, you have to be flexible, adjusting there and not having pre-set notions about going out wanting to play a certain way.”
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I doubt an allpace attack is the right option. It doesn’t make sense because the last time we played here, spinners came into play in the second innings. VIRAT KOHLI, India skipper