India captain Virat Kohli remained unfazed about his torrid run in England during the summer of 2014, and stated that he has never approached a tournament with redemption on his mind. Kohli was speaking before the Indian team departed for England to defend the Champions Trophy they had won in 2013.
The mouth-watering clash between India and Pakistan has already headlined the tournament, but Kohli insisted that he approaches the high-stakes contest just like any other game. The 28-year-old also shed light on his Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore’s struggles over the past two months, calling it “bizarre”. Here are some of the excerpts from the press conference.
On IPL and preparation for Champions Trophy?:
I don’t think you can have too much similarity in both formats. From getting some game time, it helps a lot of people in staying in the zone of being match ready, to say the least. It is different for different people. Some people cannot connect the two formats at all, some people take the bits and pieces and put them into place in all three formats.
Just being match fit, just having the rhythm of bowling, the flow of batting, just the mental set up of scoring runs in tough situations are something you can carry forward to all the formats. IPL being the high competitive tournament allows you to be in that zone when you play world-class players from all the teams. I think it could be the most competitive games you could be part of before something like Champions Trophy.
Challenges of being a defending champion:
I think the first challenge is not to think about the fact that we are defending the title. When we went there the last time, we just wanted to enjoy ourselves as a young unit. We ended up winning the tournament and ended up creating a team which has done so well so far. From that team as well, there have been a few changes.
Right now, our mindset is very similar, to go out there and enjoy our cricket which we have done in the past few years. In Test cricket, we have been able to reach the top with that mindset, and having the hunger to win. We have taken it across all formats. Ruthlessness is something we definitely speak about all the time. Even if we close a series off, we want to win it without losing a game or drawing a game as well, if possible. We go in with that mind set and that goes a long way in a tournament like this. If we can think about our games in that manner, we get the results more often than not.
Champions Trophy vs World Cup, how you approach:
Because the tournament is much shorter and you have the top eight teams in the world, the competitiveness of the tournament is much higher from the word go. In the World Cup, you can still have the league games and you have yourselves to get into the World Cup and them dominate in the latter half.
But in Champions Trophy, you have to be on the top of your game from game one. If you are not, your chances go down pretty soon. That’s the biggest challenge in Champions Trophy and something that all the players love playing, for sure. It is so competitive that the fans love watching, it is an ICC event. It is going to get a lot of eye balls. But for players, that is the general feedback that we have to be on the top of our game, no matter what, from ball one of the first game.
What Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni will bring to the table and the India-Pakistan rivalry
The kind of players they are, I don’t think I can use them in any particular way. They have enough experience that if you give them freedom to play their game in the middle order, am sure, they know most how to build the match, how to win, come out from difficult situations.
What we got to see in the last series (vs England), they played freely, they were enjoying batting with each other, first time they did it without the burden initially. It was good to see them play with a free mind the great players. The players above them also get confident and I think, overall, it was good for the team. The team environment received a boost because when these two players with good mindset, the team’s outlook is different. I will regard them as the two strongest pillars of the team. The good their mind set, the better for the team.
Format and conditions compared to the last Champions Trophy
From the last Champions Trophy, the revelation for us was the opening partnership of Rohit [Sharma] and Shikhar [Dhawan]. The pair was great to see for fans and the team. It definitely played a part in the team going on to win. Ash [Ravichandran Ashwin] and [Ravindra] Jadeja were on top of their game.
Even the fast bowlers bowled well. Even as a fielding side we were the best last time around. These three things we identified then and we would like to focus on these three things in England this tme around as well. I felt these three were out strongest facts last time around in the Champions Trophy.
On redemption from the below-par 2014 tour
I feel you improve as a cricketer in every tournament that you play. The atmosphere around us is built like life and death especially for cricketers from the subcontinent.
We do well in India there is no hype around them. We don’t do well overseas its like a knife hanging over your head. The only motivation is to play well for your country. It does not matter where you play, the aim is to win matches. People might say it is a question of life and death or redemption but its not the case for me, its just like any other tournament.
IPL form
After the kind of season we had, it teaches you about yourself as a person at a few levels. From a mindset point of view it made me realise that you cannot do everything in every game. Sometimes people might start looking at you like that, sometimes as a human being you need to realise your limitations and take a few step backwards.
Everything that we tried was going against us. Never experienced that in a side. Not just 11 but all 15 in the squad were all in the same mindset. It was bizzare and may be it was to teaches me to keep balance things out and take a step back and think about how much you can to on the field and how much intensity with which you can play may be choose your phases.
As I keep getting older those things are important and you need to avoid burnout too quickly. Those were the biggest learnings for me. I was pretty fortunate that i got to experience such a time. It teaches you a lot as captain, it teaches you a lot, composure wise. You take a lot away from failures which is what I have always cherished.
India vs Pakistan
As a cricketer, you cannot think what your partner is thinking, let alone thinking about what is happening which is out of our control. Its about playing the game that we love, Yes an Indo-Pak game is always exciting.
For people watching in the stadium, the game is different. If you ask players from both sides, it is like any other game. We prepare for it like its any other game. The atmosphere around the ground is different. But in our heads, playing against any other team, be it England, Australia or South Africa, it is all the same. There is no need to talk to anything different. There is no need to talk to anyone. Its not the first time we are playing against them.
There is no need to prepare differently for the game. We go about it the same way. There is no need to motivate players any differently. If you’re playing for India, there is no need for any separate motivation. There is no need to be extra motivated against one particular side. Yes, You need to be passionate, but there is no need to get emotional. You need to play with the same kind of passion regardless of who you play against.
