WELL DONE MY SUN

Kohli insists the baking weather & dry tracks can help his India turn the heat on England’s white ball wonders

VIRAT KOHLI reckons the baking weather will help him turn up the heat on England’s buoyant white-ball team.

Arguably the game’s finest batsman in the shorter forms of the game, he begins a twomonth tour with T20 cricket at Old Trafford in charge of an India team that will provide England with their stiffest tests of the summer.

And already things have fallen into place for the 29-year-old, who struggled with the moving ball on his last tour of England in 2014 but has found Manchester to be more like Mumbai thanks to the June heatwave.

Injury ruled out a stint at Surrey where he had hoped to get used to English conditions but he said: “Looking at the weather, it’s not a setback at all to miss out with Surrey. I mean it’s as dry as I’ve seen it ever.

“And the point was that we don’t get to play in those wet and damp conditions. But it’s totally opposite to what it was when the early season was going on and I don’t think it would’ve made too much of a difference to my preparation.

“Obviously you want to perform as an individual but I haven’t set any benchmarks or targets to come here to do certain things which have to be special just because the last tour here didn’t go well.

“I want to be able to lead from the front. That’s always my mindset from the time I’ve been captain – for the team to play well and contribute as much as I can.” When asked if bowling to Kohli in white-ball format was the toughest assignment in cricket, England skipper Eoin Morgan replied: “That’s a very good question. I’m not sure I have the answer.”

Well, allow Mirror Sport to answer it: Yes. Understandably Morgan does not want to send too much praise in his opposite number’s direction, but no batsman has been as dominant as Kohli in white-ball run chases over the past four years.

England have plenty of talent to call on themselves though, none more special than Jos Buttler, who marshalled a brilliant win over Australia at this ground last month.

And after impressing at the IPL, Kohli admits India are well aware of what Buttler and a few others are capable of.

“I am not surprised the way Jos has played,” added Kohli, who had Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes as team-mates in Bangalore.

“It was lovely to watch him play the way he was, because when you gain momentum in this format and you continue for that long, it always feels good to watch.

“I think this season at the IPL has broken down barriers to a great extent

“It is going to make relations between the two teams even better.”