India captain Virat Kohli, ahead of his team’s semi-final against New Zealand on Wednesday at Old Trafford, brushed aside suggestions that a lack of a century in the World Cup so far was playing on his mind.
Kohli has scored five fifties so far but uncharacteristically not managed to cross the three-figure mark in the United Kingdom. Opener and vice-captain Rohit Sharma has been the man in form, scoring five hundreds.
Yet again, Kohli reserved rich praise for his deputy.
“[I am] very happy with the role I am playing, a holding role, don’t care about individual landmarks, even Rohit [Sharma] said the same that day – according to me Rohit is the top ODI player in the world at the moment,” Kohli said at the pre-match press conference.
Kohli said that there will be little margin for error: “Knockouts are a little bit different, league stages, you can try a few things, here you need to be precise. Decision-making is crucial, this is like some of the situations one faces in Test cricket.”
India finished on top of the pile after the league stage, piping Australia and are overwhelming favourites to reach the final. Kohli insisted that there will be no easy games at the business end of the tournament.
“I cannot remember the last time I stepped out to a field and felt, ‘oh this is an easy game’,” Kohli said.
“Obviously, a World Cup knockout game brings a different pressure than a bilateral series. It’s important to treat this as a game of cricket.
“Our bowling attack has been up there with the best if not the best. New Zealand’s bowling has always been a balanced attack; their team has been very consistent, will need to be very disciplined against them.”
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Team combination undecided
The 30-year-old, though, said that he is yet to take a call on the team combination. “The team combination is still up for discussion, five bowlers or a sixth bowler will think about it but as you just told me, I am quite a lethal bowler and can get batsmen out as long as I don’t slip on landing…,” joked Kohli, in reference to him dismissing Kane Williamson in the 2008 Under-19 world cup semi-final.
Recently, the team winning the toss have had a slight edge: “Toss? Comes back to the same point – handling the pressure. I assume that the pressure can be very high. But we are not worried about the toss.”
Kohli added, “Whichever team is more brave in being calculative, that team stands a better chance to win so we understand that combination, we’ve made it to a lot of knockout games and finals and it’s up to both to bring their A game. Whoever handles pressure better will come out on top.”
“This time around, the format has been different, and we have achieved the first goal, we can now focus on remaining games in the tournament. Bodies ain’t as fresh but we are equally motivated.”
Rematch of sorts from 2008
In the press conference, Kohli was reminded that he and Williamson had captained their respective teams in Malaysia back in the 2008 U-19 World Cup. In that game, Kohli accounted for the wicket of Williamson and the Indian boys went on to win the match by three wickets before defeating South Africa in the final.
“I got Kane’s wicket, really? I don’t think this will happen again,” Kohli joked. “I remember in 2007, we played an U-19 Test in New Zealand. Kane played a shot off one of our quicker fast bowlers and said in the slips that I had never seen anyone play that so well.”
Apart from Kohli, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was a part of that side. New Zealand have three representatives in Williamson as well as pacers Trent Boult and Tim Southee.
The India captain said: “A lot of players from that World Cup from our batch, from their batch, from other teams as well, made it to their national teams and are still playing. I think it is a really nice memory. Neither me nor him could have ever anticipated that one day this will happen.
“When we meet tomorrow I’ll remind him. It’s nice to realise that 11 yrs after, we’re captaining our respective nations again in a senior World Cup.”
