ENG vs IND 2018: We’re thinking of nothing else but to go 2-1 in the series, says Virat Kohli

Virat has urged his side to learn from their mistakes during the first two Tests.

Virat Kohli wants India to comeback into the series with a win at Trent Bridge. (Getty)

Indian Captain Virat Kohli has admitted that his side was heavily outplayed by England at Lord's but he believes that the only way from here is forward and upward. India was beaten embarrassingly by an innings and 159 runs in less than 2 days of play that was possible due to rain and are now 2-0 down in the five-Test series, but Virat has urged his team to learn from their mistakes and focus on to try and comeback with a win in Trent Bridge. 

“People are saying that we batted in overcast conditions … if we dwell on those things, we’ll be unable to plan,” Kohli said during the post-match press conference and added, "We can’t think about what could have happened in the game because we have to correct our mistakes. We have no option other than that.”

“For a sportsman, it’s important that if we make mistakes we ensure they’re corrected, and as a team, we’ll look to focus on that. The fact is we didn’t play good cricket in this match. Batting wasn’t good. As for bowling, we began well but were unable to hit areas consistently. We could have done a lot better with both bat and ball,”

Mistakes? Well..India has made a lot of them at Edgbaston and Lord's but Virat wants them to learn from them and ambition a win to make it 2-1 at Trent Bridge. 

He said, “We have to accept the mistakes, learn from them, put them aside, make sure we’re not thinking about the same mistakes again, rather get confident and not repeat those again, We’re thinking of nothing else but to go 2-1 in the series, and from thereon build on that strongly. This is the first time in the last five Tests we’ve been really outplayed … we’ve competed in every game.”

“We know that we do have the bowling attack to pick up 20 wickets and as batsmen, we should think of that as an opportunity to score runs and make the team win games. What is sad is that we haven’t had those two skills come together,”

India got bowled out for 107 and 130 in both innings under excellent conditions for swing and seam bowling but Virat said that you can survive if you build partnerships in the middle. 

“When you’re out there in a situation that is tough, you have to find ways to counter the situation, which I think we’ve failed to do as batsmen, myself included, in this game. We haven’t been able to have partnerships in this game, which is the basic rule of batting," Virat gave an example of R. Ashwin and Hardik Pandya's admirable effort on Day 4 and said, "Only 50 (partnership) with Hardik (Pandya) and Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin), nothing of any substance before or after that. That’s what we need to work on, to build partnerships and put the team in a strong position,” 

Virat also clarified about the concerns regarding his back pain that he was clearly enduring in the second Test. 

“As of yesterday and today, it wasn’t great. Back is one thing that can be really tricky. It happened during the last leg of the South Africa tour when I missed a T20 game. The good thing is I have five days before the next Test. “We’re confident, with rehab and strengthening, I should be ready for the next game although not with the same intensity on the field, but I should be able to hold a position in the field and be 100 percent with the bat. I think five days is good enough to be better for the next game,” he concluded. 

(Inputs from ICC)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 13 Aug, 2018

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