Mirpur : India will be pinning their hope on batting mainstay Virat Kohli to come good with the bat in the forthcoming Asia Cup which gets under way tomorrow at Mirpur . Kohli is coming in this tournament recharged after taking a break in the recently concluded T20 series against Sri Lanka . According to the Indian vice captain , the Asia Cup is a perfect platform to assess the team’s strengths, weaknesses and its current standing on the global stage ahead of the big-ticket World Twenty20 next month.
“Going into the World Cup as I said, the conditions are going to be similar and we will probably be playing all these oppositions at some stage. So, as many teams as we play before the World Cup, it gives us a great opportunity to assess what the teams are like, what the balance is like, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and where do we stand compared to them. You can see it (Asia Cup) as a whole package before the World Cup,” Kohli said at the pre-match press conference here.
India begin the tournament on the back of some very impressive outings in the slam-bang format against Australia and Sri Lanka.
“Asia Cup has always been a challenging tournament, it’s like a mini event as far as the sub-continental teams are concerned. It’s an opportunity to test yourself as I said against the best teams in the sub continent. It’s a competitive tournament with different opposition with different set of skills testing you all the time.”
Talking about India’s chances in the tournament , Kohli commented ,”Our team has good momentum going into Asia Cup. We cannot be over-confident and we have to respect every opposition,” said Kohli.
Young Mustafizur Rahaman tormented the Indians during their last visit where they lost the ODI series 1-2. Kohli was all praise for Mustafizur , who recently got picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad for 1.4 crore to play in the Indian Premier League .
“Mustafizur has done really well in the last one year. He spices up the game. It’s important for the game to have bowlers, who come in and trouble the batsmen. It makes the game more competitive. As a batsmen also, it becomes more exciting because you think that you have to prepare differently for a bowler, who has brought something new.”
Kohli is among the most dreaded batsmen in international cricket right now but the star batsman says he has made peace with one short coming in his game, that he can’t strike big sixes.
Kohli has hit only 27 sixes in 33 T20 Internationals compared to a whopping 127 boundaries. He spoke about his approach in the T20 format . “The game plan in my initial days in T20 was to get 10 off 10 and then take off. But I realised that I don’t have the kind of shots to hit big sixes. I have come to terms with the fact that I cannot hit big sixes so I focus on boundaries,”
Kohli said he is happy that to have got a three-week break from the game post the Australia tour.
“It was a good break after a long time. I got time to get away from the game. Rest was important as I was playing non- stop cricket. Every cricketer’s workload is assessed differently. If I play 5 games and if I don’t make runs then my workload will not be that much compared to someone else.
“It’s an important phase, so it was good, little bit of training, rest, spending time at home, it was a good break all in all.”
Talking about next month’s World T20, Kohli feels it is very difficult to just focus on two or three particular teams as it can upset the gameplan.
“Every team is dangerous in T20. On a particular day, we are not looking at any team as major threat. We will take the challenge very similarly be it any team from around the world, that’s the way we need to approach a tournament like the World Cup.” He further added , “If you focus on two or three teams too much, then one tends to lose focus on the rest. Every game counts in this format. Things can change very quickly, momentum is a big factor. Both India and Bangladesh are very strong but we are not focusing on strengths of the opposition too much because we need to back our strengths than find out the weaknesses in the opposition to win matches.”
Lastly , Kohli was asked about the infamous traffic snarls in Bangladesh but the Indian captain made light of it by saying that he is more focussed on the dew factor then traffic.
“We are more concerned about the cricketing conditions than traffic. Wicket does play differently a lot of times, and dew can make it almost a one-sided game. As for traffic, I just go off to sleep while we are in the bus,” he said.