India coach Rahul Dravid had a perfect reply to a journalist’s question regarding his conversations with Virat Kohli during the India nets ahead of their Asia Cup 2022 Super 4s game against Pakistan on September 4 in Dubai.
The Men in Blue will be clashing with the Babar Azam-led side for the second time in the tournament after they had beaten them in the group stages once. Virat Kohli had made his India comeback after a month’s break in that match and scored 35 in 34 balls.
He then scored 59* in 44 balls against Hong Kong, playing the perfect foil for Suryakumar Yadav, who smashed 68* in 26 balls. Kohli has seemed in good touch and even the fluency is returning to his game, as evident from his accelerating in the death overs.
In the pre-match presser for the Dubai clash between India and Pakistan on Sunday, Dravid was asked about Kohli's return to the Indian team and what chat he had with him at the nets, pointing out that it was a lengthy conversation between the two.
With a smile, Dravid replied saying, "Bahut lagega yaar yaha pe. Pehli baat, players and coaches ke beech jo baatein hoti he woh me aake media me toh baat nahi karunga. Haa yeh bhi baat kar rahe the ki khana kaha acha milta hai Dubai me. Unko bahut ache resturants bhi pata he yaha pe. So woh bhi advice kar rahe the. (See, I can't reveal the conversations between player and coach. But yes, we were also talking about where we can get good food here. He knows a lot of good restuarants here)"
Dravid also defended Kohli’s below-par strike rate in the two innings he has played thus far in the tournament.
"He's (Kohli) also coming back after a break, it's nice to see that he's come back fresh, looking forward to playing all these games. He got time to spend in the middle. Hopefully, he will kick on from here on and have a good tournament," Dravid said.
The India head coach also opined that the former captain’s form is not of much concern for the team management and said that critics shouldn’t be obsessing with his numbers.
"For us, it's not really about how many runs he makes. Especially with Virat, people get a little bit obsessed with his statistics and numbers. For us, it's really not about that. It's about the contributions he makes at different phases of the game. It doesn't have to be in 50s or 100s or a stat for us, even a small contribution makes a lot for us in T20s. He's really keen on putting on good performances," Dravid said.
Here is the entire conversation:
