IND vs NZ | I’m batting really well, sometimes scores don’t reflect it, believes Virat Kohli

02/24/2020

Virat Kohli has stated that his scores don’t reflect his batting form and rubbished outside opinion saying that it is only natural for a few innings not going his way because of the amount of cricket he plays. He has also added that players don’t pay heed any opinions that dilute their mental space.

Since the beginning of this New Zealand ODIs, Kohli has only one fifty-plus score from five innings, with his manner of dismissals defying the kind of batting form he has shown over the years. In the Wellington Test, he seemed bereft of oomph and threw away his wicket in both the innings bringing chatter about his form. Kohli believes that he is batting well and it is only natural for him to fail in a few games because of the number of games he is playing lately.

“I’m batting really well, sometimes scores don’t reflect it. If you play so much cricket for so long, you will have three or four innings which won’t go your way. I know the chat going on outside, if I start thinking like them, I would probably be outside. It is about getting the basics right, putting practices into play. If it does not come through, you don’t beat yourself for it but continue to keep focusing. It is never about what I do for the team, it is more of the team and the results. If the team wins, even a 40 is good and if the team loses, a 100 is irrelevant,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

While this is the first loss for India in the World Test Championship, the reactions to it are compounded for the fact that the team suffered their first-ever ODI series whitewash in 31 years. However, Kohli believes that the team doesn’t pay heed to the outside talks and believe in being in good head-space.

“First things first, block all the noise from outside. People want us to think it is a massive loss so that our preparations are blocked. Keeping us mentally in a bad space will help some sides. We as a side have never paid heed to the outside noise and we will continue to do that. Wins and losses on an international level are part of things. We have taken a lot of pride playing this way and we will continue to in the second Test. We are definitely going to come out and attack and not be on the backfoot after one loss,” the 30-year-old added.

Even though India lost to England 4-1 and to South Africa 2-1 in their 2018 away sojourn, the stand-out fact from the losses were the way India played. They were never behind in the game and never let that performance affect their confidence. However, this Test loss was an anomaly, something Kohli understands and need to work on.

“This is a game where we didn’t show much competitiveness. Like in the past, we have always been in the game and played good cricket even when we lost. I think we let ourselves in the first innings with the bat massively. Toss played a big part in this Test match but that is uncontrollable. The conditions kept getting better and by scoring 230-240, we could give our bowlers a chance."

“We have to try and get into a positive state of mind, especially in Test cricket. Even when you play at home, you can’t play a lot of shots. You can’t say I am going to smash the ball from ball one. Even on turning tracks, that is the key and you also have to have the intent of putting the bad balls away. All these things we need to accept that we weren’t at our best in this game. We will come out in the next game with much better in the next and that is the representation of this Test team. We take pride in the way we play our cricket and this Test is not really an example,” the Indian skipper added.