Kohli wants quiet tour of Australia
SKIPPER: WE’LL DEPEND ON ABILITY OVER AGGRESSION
India have yet to win a Test series in Australia.
Mumbai
India captain Virat Kohli said yesterday he wants a sledge-free tour of Australia but is ready to fight fire with fire in the landmark series. India leave today for Australia where they have never won a Test series and feel boosted by the one-year bans being served by home stars Steve Smith and David Warner.
Kohli is known for his combative tactics but he said India would depend on ability over aggression on the key tour.
“When it comes to getting engaged in an argument on the field, or in a fight as people want to call it excitedly, I have been completely OK playing without an altercation,” Kohli told a press conference ahead of the team’s departure.
“I have enough belief in my ability to play without a reason to pump myself up.
“Those were very immature things that I needed to feed on in the early days of my career.”
The Australian dressing-room has vowed a culture change since Smith and Warner were banned for their involvement in ball-tampering in South Africa this year. But no tour of Australia is a gentle experience.
“If they want to play a certain way we will reciprocate in that way, that’s how the game of cricket goes,” Kohli said.
He insisted the team know the importance of “remaining competitive”.
India start their tour with the first of three Twenty20 internationals in Brisbane on November 21. They will then play four Tests and three one-day internationals.
India maintained their home supremacy with a thrashing of the West Indies in the Test series (2-0), ODIs (3-1) and T20 (3-0).
But away it has been a different story. India lost 2-1 in South Africa and then were outplayed 4-1 in England. Kohli insists his side have learned from the defeats however.
“We have spoken as a team after England and everyone is keen to correct those mistakes and put in a complete performance which we want to last for a full series,” said Kohli.
“It’s in Test cricket where we really need to tighten things up and keep moving forward and correcting those mistakes. In ODIs and T20s we have played really good cricket.”
Kohli recently became the fastest to reach 10 000 runs in oneday internationals, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar. But the other batsmen have been inconsistent.
“Our focus will be how the batsmen perform on this tour because the bowlers are in a great space. After a long time we feel we can pick up 20 wickets in every game,” he said. –