Virat Kohli Sweating It Out Ahead Of The India vs Pakistan ICC World Twenty20 Match At Eden Gardens In Kolkata

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Virat Kohli In Action During The India vs New Zealand ICC World Twenty20 Match At Vidharbha Cricket Association Stadium In Nagpur

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Virat Kohli’s Press Conference Ahead Of The ICC World Twenty20 Opener Against New Zealand

‘Stay calm’ is Virat Kohli’s mantra before World T20 opener.

Nagpur: The mature head on Virat Kohli’s shoulder again made its presence felt in the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium here, bringing to the fore an understanding of the game that makes a player stand apart.

MS Dhoni kept to football while Kohli paced into the press conference in the customary pre-match-day media address. But there was hardly a soul there that missed a captain.

“The whole feel and vibe of such a big tournament is different from a bilateral,” he stated the obvious, before underling what he meant by that. “Our biggest strength will be to not look at it as a new tournament but to keep our [winning] momentum going,” he stressed.

“At home people come to you and say ‘we must win’; we expect and understand that playing in India,” Kohli added, followed by an advice that always keeps you maintain your equilibrium.

“It’s important to not get carried away, staying calm is important,” India’s No. 3 added. “We obviously are our own favourites but it’s important to focus game by game.”

It’s India’s first big multi-lateral tournament at home since winning the 2011 World Cup, which naturally brings with it similar hopes, that the boys will bring back memories of 2011 when all roads from the Wankhede Stadium turned into a sea of tricolour.

In five years since then, Kohli has grown as a player and matured into a leader in Tests. There’s isn’t a better man young boys like Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah can go to and ask how to keep the butterflies away. Kohli recognises those anxious feelings.

“I had anxiety in 2011 to establish myself, so it might be the case with players like Pandya and Bumrah but they are very confident,” the Delhi man said, before coming to the remedy.

“I see a big stage as an opportunity rather than pressure,” he said, hinting how to handle that funny feeling.

Talking about one game at a time, India will have to rewrite history against the Kiwis, who have never lost to MS Dhoni’s boys in T20 internationals.

Will that force India to change its winning combination, with Mohammed Shami returning fit? Kohli has his doubts

“Shami has done really well whenever he has played regularly for us, we all were waiting for him to come back,” he said with a glee, before answering the next question which said if India will change their combination.

“It’s difficult to change a combination that has worked for you so well, but then you have to asses the situation and conditions before selecting an XI. The captain and team management will sit down and decide,” he said.

Regarding the Indian top order that has so far carried the team in last three series that India won, Kohli said he and the openers know the roles they have to play and bat accordingly.

“[Shikhar] Dhawan’s role is go out and take on the bowlers; I and Rohit [Sharma] try to assess the situation and play accordingly,” he said, before recognising the bigger challenges that lies ahead.

“Your skill and concentration is tested the most in T20s…We are pretty confident having won 10 of last 11 games but this is going to be far more challenging,” he said, before pushing his chair back to join the training.

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Virat Kohli’s ICC World Twenty20 Photoshoot

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Virat Kohli Relishing Being India’s Go-To Man

“I think that break really helped me focus again and continue what I did in Australia,” said Kohli.

At 28, Virat Kohli, is slowly asserting himself as one of India’s greatest batsmen of all time. He has scored runs in all formats and in all parts of the world. The England tour in 2014 turned out to be a minor blip, but the man came back in the way only he can, scoring more and more runs.

A successful Australian tour in 2014-15, followed by a personally impressive World Cup and Kohli was back to his best. He has now become a run machine, has left his peers way behind and has earned the admiration of his teammates. In short, Kohli is in the middle of a wonderful purple patch and is in the form of his life.

Named as India’s Test captain after the retirement of MS Dhoni, Kohli has taken to the task with relish. His out and out aggressive policy was lauded in Australia and it came as no surprise when he led India to a convincing 2-1 series victory during the tour of Sri Lanka. It was then followed by a stunning 3-0 hammering of South Africa at home, a result that catapulted India to number one in the ICC Test ranking for a while.

“I am happy I am contributing at the right times for the team,” Virat told bcci.tvon Sunday (March 6) after helping India clinch the Asia Cup, beating Bangladesh by a comfortable eight-wicket margin in the final. Kohli had played his part as well, his consistency being one of the major factors in India’s title triumph.

“There were a lot of speculations about me when I took rest for the tour against Sri Lanka. There were all sorts of articles and things written about me questioning whether it was a right move to rest at that point of time. There was a lot of negativity around that decision that was made, but I knew that mentally I needed a break and needed to refresh myself and comeback and do the same thing over and over again.

“Good habits are really hard to create and once you get them, you need to be in full flow and continue them day in and day out. I think that break really helped me focus again and continue what I did in Australia. I am really glad I could contribute in all the games here.”

“Good habits are really hard to create and once you get them, you need to be in full flow and continue them day in and day out.”

While his batting has come a long way, it’s his ability to innovate without taking risks, find the gaps in the field and the sheer consistency, which has stood apart. “It is very important to assess the field,” Kohli said, as he began to dissect his batting. “I have seen people mark fielders on the ground and I never understood why till I actually started paying attention to these minute details. As a batsman, you actually calculate how far you can hit the ball from the fielder. If you hit it really well, even 10 meters is good enough distance to beat the fielder even if the fielder moves sideways or has some kind of lateral movement on the field.

“It is very important to judge where the fielders are so that you can pick your gaps and execute what you want to. You have a clearer plan when you know where the fielders are and you can hit the ball in the gaps rather than just taking a risk and trying to hit over the line. Hitting the ball over the line is a chance you take, but once you are hitting the gaps, it is very important to know where the fielder is standing.”

With Kohli firing on all cylinders and the team playing at home, can India go on and become the first team to win the ICC World T20 at home? Only time will tell but one thing is for sure, the batsman will have a key role to play in India’s campaign.

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