As the first home Test against England gets underway in Chennai on Friday (February 5), India captain Virat Kohli has insisted that they would just like to “stay in the present” and wouldn’t add “extra pressure” on themselves by thinking about the ICC World Test Championship (WTC).
He further admitted that India had a discussion about the World Test Championship final during the series in New Zealand last year and they found themselves under pressure and eventually lost the Test series but this time, Team India will not repeat the same mistake in the ongoing four-match Test series against England.
The right-hander further pointed out Indian cricket team didn't speak of winning ICC World Test Championship in Australia and the results were positive as the hosts are keeping things simple and taking one thing at a time in order to get success in the longest format of the game.
Kohli told reporters in Chennai: “In New Zealand, we did discuss it (WTC final) a bit and that could have added extra pressure on us to do everything so precisely. We ended up being under pressure a little bit. But from Australia onwards, it was all about following a good process, preparing well, going out there and just understanding the situation and making sure we play according to the situation.”
He further added, “In this Australia series, we didn't speak of winning because of WTC. I think it is a by-product of your team doing well anyway. There's no point adding extra pressure. For us, it remains a game of cricket, one session at a time. One hour at a time.
That is how success is achieved in the longest format of the game. So no point thinking about something that is still months. It is important to stay in the present and take one day at a time and move forward.”
Meanwhile, the India captain was also impressed by the brilliant performance of the youngsters and newcomers like Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, and Navdeep Saini in Australia.
On India’s strategy on overseas Test tours including Australia, Kohli said, “We had decided back in 2014 when I took over as captain that whenever I get a chance I will go for the win and draw will be our last option when we don't have a chance to win. We have persisted with this.”
The 32-year-old continued, “In every match, we think of how and where we can win from. Making a plan is one thing but persisting with it requires everyone's contribution. What happened in Australia recently -- youngsters coming and performing is a special win for us.
Because we did not have that much experience and the impactful performances they came up with, that can happen only with mindset -- they thought that they will go, play and go for the win.
Regardless of who we are playing against, the difference in experience, all that goes out of the picture and your focus stays on winning.”
He signed off by saying, “If we see our overseas tours, England or South Africa except for New Zealand, we realized that we lost the match in 40-45 minutes. It was not that we were dominated in the Test when we played away from home.
When we saw that result in the last Australia series, our belief got stronger that we were on the right path and we knew that we were going on the right way.”
(With IANS Inputs)
