India skipper’s mantra: Keep calm and move on

A concerted effort by parts of the Australian media couldn’t tempt India cricket team captain Virat Kohli to stray from the talk of harmony and ‘moving on’ from the Bangalore Test as he chose to focus and speak on the immediate job at hand --- winning the Ranchi Test and take a lead in the series. During the pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Kohli was specifically asked about the appropriateness of the ‘allegations’ he had made during the Bangalore Test. Kohli had accused Australia of misusing the review system at least twice. When the journalist elaborated on it, Kohli still insisted on the exact nature of allegation. “But what is the allegation called? It has to be called something for me to be questioning something about someone to call it an allegation,” said Kohli. “If no charges were pressed against me how were they allegations?,” Kohli asked.

When the concerned journalist again asked Kohli if he stands by his claim that Australia had crossed the line on DRS at least twice, the India captain stopped him midway. “As I said we need to

move on and focus on the game tomorrow. There are two sides of the coin. I could be speaking about it again and things are not going to move forward,” said Kohli. “Everyone sitting here has their own interest and they choose to ask what they want to. But our focus remains on the game and we need to look forward.”

Throughout this series, Kohli has been the focus of the media from both countries but the India captain doesn’t mind criticised or praised because he claims to be ‘detached’ from all that. “It does not matter to me honestly. I don’t start a series saying focus on me, speak on me or write about me. It’s not in my control. If people choose to write about me or speak about me, that’s their choice. Whether it’s criticism or praise it’s all happened in the past.”