‘We want to win every game’ - Kohli looks for consistency ahead of home season

Dharamsala: Indian captain Virat Kohli, wants his team to play every game with a mindset to win, irrespective of the conditions or format.

India completed a successful tour to West Indies last month, having won each of the completed games across the three formats with convincing margins.

Kohli expects his team to carry the similar intensity forward, as they now play South Africa in three T20Is and as many Tests at home.

“We want to win every game, whether it’s home or away, any format - we just want to go out there, play our best cricket and win,” Kohli said on the eve of the first T20I to be played here on Sunday.

“For us as a home team, we have to absolutely sure of our game plan. The way we prepare for overseas series, where we have to be very focused, it’s the same. International cricket is nowadays about the mindset. As coach Ravi Shastri has said in the past - ‘every condition can be home condition if you feel comfortable’.

I think it’s getting into the frame of mindset for us, and hence we have been one of the most consistent teams in the last two-three years,” the Indian captain said.

India have opted to rest senior bowlers Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and spin twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal for the upcoming series, which presents an opportunity for the younger lot which includes Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar and Rahul Chahar. With the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in sight, Kohli sees every T20I as a roadmap to the event, an ICC report said.

“We wanted to give opportunities to players who have done well for the past two years in the domestic circuit and T20 cricket in the IPL,” he said. “It is about finding the best possible balance we can for the side and not necessarily stick to one particular type of balance. If other teams can bat till number nine, so why cannot we? Whatever decisions are made, they are made looking at the future.”

“The first two to three T20I series will help us assess every situation. Definitely the roadmap for T20 World Cup in 2020 is on our mind. It is an exciting prospect looking at the new bunch of guys in our lineup,” said Kohli.

The 30-year old cleared the air regarding speculations over his former captain MS Dhoni’s retirement, which had been brought about by a tweet he had put up on September 11. “I had nothing in my mind. I was sitting at home and I normally put out a photograph and it became a news.”

“I think it was a lesson for me, that the way I think, the whole world does not think that way. There was nothing in farthest stretch of my imagination (that it could be taken as retirement tribute) while putting that picture out on social media. People interpreted it in a different manner in which there was not even an iota of truth,” he added. (UNI)

(Photo: Twitter/BCCI)