Nagpur: Indian skipper Virat Kohli has expressed his displeasure against the BCCI for accommodating the Sri Lanka series leaving less time for the practice session ahead of the long tour of South Africa Series beginning from January 5 next year.Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the second Test against Sri Lanka starting from Friday here Kohli said, “Had we got a month off ideally, we would have done a proper preparation in a camp sort of scenario.But we have to sort of make do with what we have,” said Kohli.
India would be touring for South Africa where they play three Tests, six ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals, just a couple of days after the home series against Sri Lanka gets over on December 24.“As usual cramped for time, which I think we needed to assess in future as well because we very easily assess the team when go abroad but we don’t look at how many days we have got to prepare before we go to a particular place to play.
“Everyone starts judging players when results come after Test matches.It should be a fair game where we get to prepare the way we want to and then we are entitled to be criticised.So we thought this is an ample opportunity for us to challenge ourselves, put us in a situation.
“As I said, we want to embrace being in difficult conditions.I am not saying that everyone will go out and perform immediately but if we can feel comfortable about it after one or two or three innings, someone will come good.And once you come good, you build on that confidence.It’s the same for the bowlers.Yes, we are looking at this as an opportunity,” the India skipper stated.
While emphasising on the need to assess (the schedule) in future, Kohli admitted it is the reason the India team management specially requested for seamer-friendly wickets for the Sri Lanka series as it was the only option to prepare for South Africa.
“Yes (we requested for the pace-friendly wickets), because unfortunately we get only two days before we fly to South Africa after this series gets over.So we have no choice but be in a game situation and think of what’s coming ahead of us.(UNI)