Ahead of the first Australia-India day-night Test on Thursday (December 17) at Adelaide Oval, Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli sounded confident as his team is all set to take tackle any challenge and situation on their road to retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
With the four-Test campaign between Australia and India begins with the day-night affair at Adelaide Oval on Thursday, Kohli admitted that the twilight period will be a “tricky one” for batsmen to bat on whereas the first session will be “more disciplined” for bowlers.
However, the dashing right-hander has insisted that Team India is ready to encounter any challenge and face the situations to the best of their abilities in the upcoming Test series as the tourists are eyeing to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Australia soil.
Kohli said on the eve of the first Test: “I think you can have a fair idea of how you wanna go about things but I don't think you can plan anything in Test cricket. Test cricket is all about encountering situations and reacting to the situations to the best of your abilities. Understanding when you need to attack when you need to defend when you need to bat through the session, end the session well, and start the session well.”
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On the Day-Night Test, the Indian skipper pointed out: “The pink-ball Test obviously brings in a few more variables like the twilight period. It is a tricky one to bat in that situation and probably bowling in the first session is up to being more disciplined and then at night, you have more to offer with the ball.
So, actually, it is the other way around when you compare a normal Test match scenario and something we have to analyze and monitor as we go into the Test match and encounter the situation changing and unfolding itself in front of us. We are actually ready to come up with our plans for any situation that we could face.”
Meanwhile, Kohli said the Indian cricket team is well prepared to counter the Australian challenge with different plans for each opponent, saying they just need to execute those plans on the field.
He signed off by saying, “Our plans are pretty much sorted and ready for all the batsman that we are going to come up against. We have to make sure that we execute those plans consistently and as efficiently as possible to be able to trouble them and get those breakthroughs and dismiss them at the right time during the Test match. We are only focussed on what we can do as a team and take that confidence and those plans on to the field to be able to execute them.”
Here’s India's playing XI for the Adelaide Test:
Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, and Jasprit Bumrah.
(With ANI Inputs)
