‘To win is the target, doesn’t matter if it’s home or away’

COLOMBO: On the verge of a rare whitewash in an away series, it’s another performance which will help India build the aura of a champion side. However, to acquire the tag of an all-conquering side, they will have to wait till they beat Australia, England and South Africa away.

Oozing with confidence after their innings win in the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Virat Kohli said it was no longer about home or away. They want to win every game.

“Well, it’s obviously nice to win this series again. We won this last time also, in 2015. Yes, we do have that chance (of completing a whitewash). But honestly speaking, we are not looking at Test matches or Test cricket now as home and away anymore. We are just looking at them as Test matches and we want to win anywhere we play.

“If we can believe in our abilities, then we are not really bothered about where we are playing. That kind of energy I can sense in the team; and the team believes that as well. You know, we have to only look to win Tests, on whatever pitch or in whatever conditions. We are creating a habit of winning, that I think can be carried on in future as well,” added Kohli.

“From the numbers point of view these things look great. But for us as a team, it’s all about achieving those little goals every time we go out to play a Test.”

Even though the new appointments in the coaching staff have been with the cycle of the 2019 World Cup, Kohli said Test cricket is priority. “We really feel good as a team that we’re able to win consistently right now, but we realise it’s very important to keep carrying on the same way as well.”

While India have got the results at home or playing in similar conditions (in the West Indies and Sri Lanka), it has been impressive how they have overcome challenging situations.

An example was Sri Lanka’s second innings batting. Dimuth Karunaratne had brought his team within 137 runs of making India bat again at lunch. But the visitors didn’t panic and stuck to their plan, creating pressure with the second new ball, which paid dividends. From 310 for four, the hosts crashed to 386 all out.

If we can believe in our abilities, then we are not really bothered about where we are playing VIRAT KOHLI, India captain