Kohli vows India will bounce back from heavy Pakistan defeat
SKIPPER Virat Kohli on Sunday said India remained confident of bouncing back from its crushing 10wicket defeat by rival Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup.
Captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan steered Pakistan to the side’s first ever win over India in World Cups with a clinical performance in Dubai.
India plays its next Super 12 match on October 31 against New Zealand and Kohli believes the week-long break will help the team regroup. “I think it works really well from all points of views,” said Kohli, who hit 57 in India’s 7-151 while batting first.
“We have played a full fledged season. We have played the IPL which is high octane by itself and then we come into this World Cup.
“So for us these big breaks are definitely going to help us as a team to be in the prime of physical condition that we need to be in his high intensity tournament.” He added: “It will help us to regroup as a team.
And we have enough confidence in our ability that with this preparation time we will come out in a positive frame of mind.”
Openers Babar (68) and Rizwan (79) steered Pakistan to its target of 152 with 13 balls to spare.
But it was Shaheen Shah Afridi’s lethal spell of bowling that rattled India, which slipped to 3-31 with swashbuckling opener Rohit Sharma back in the pavilion for nought.
“In T20 cricket you need good execution to pick up wickets with the new ball and certainly he did that,” Kohli said of the left-arm quick.
“So credit to him. He put our batsmen under pressure immediately with the new ball and ran in with intensity.”
In reply, Babar and Rizwan came hard at the Indian bowling attack that had to deal with the dew in Dubai.
Kohli said the toss would be key in the upcoming matches if the dew set in early.