SA v IND 2018: Virat Kohli talks about workload of players and areas of improvement for 2019 World Cup

Virat Kohli won the Player of the series award.

It was a clinical performance by Team India | Twitter

India finished the six matches ODI series against South Africa on a triumphant note with an 8 wicket win in the final ODI. Virat Kohli led the way with a scintillating 129*, his third century of the series.

With the ODI series in the pocket, Virat Kohli also analyzed the performance of his players in the series during the post match press conference and revealed the areas of improvement on the road to 2019 World Cup and managing players’ workloads.

Virat said, “We will definitely sit down as a team and figure out the areas that need improvement. I am not denying that there are no areas that need strengthening. We know as a team we need to improve on a certain things. We have identified those things. It is up to us to discuss and improve on those things going forward and solidifying those areas for ourselves.

Talking about bringing in Shardul Thakur for Bhuvneshwar in the last ODI, Virat said, “There was potentially only one guy that we wanted to experiment with, which was Bhuvi, because his workload was immense. Bumrah is a world-class bowler in this format. You know it's a case of dropping Bumrah being similar to dropping a Shikhar Dhawan or a Rohit Sharma. Nobody will talk about those things. It's very easy to drop the bowlers.

"Bhuvi's workload was massive and the two wrist spinners (Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav) deserved to play all the games because of the way they have bowled. They have been one factor that was been in the mind of the opposition the most. So we thought giving rest to Bhuvi was the ideal situation," the 29-year-old said.

Talking about the chances that Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer got in the series, Virat said, “We wanted to strengthen our middle order so (we are) giving them as many chances as possible. It is important for (Shreyas) Iyer and Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane) as well. It's very important to understand that one knock can be a difference in someone's career. So (we are) giving them one extra opportunity.

"We discussed with the management and with the coach. Just one opportunity opened up where Bhuvi was feeling it in his body and hence the change. We didn't feel like we wanted to change something else, “he added.

(With inputs from PTI)

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 17 Feb, 2018

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