Ahead of the first India vs Australia ODI match to played in Chennai on September 17, skipper of Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli addressed a press conference and hinted that Ajinkya Rahane might accompany Rohit Sharma to open the inning for India.
While addressing the press conference, Kohli revealed that he is backing Ajinkya Rahane to bat at top of the order. He said,” Ajinkya Rahane plays in the middle order in ODIs and Tests and then he has opened a lot in the ODIs are well. He also felt that he found it difficult to switch. Hence we are backing him. Once you get that balance with given that player more chances then he gets more confident of his role in the team.”
On KL Rahul, Virat said that he is an outstanding talent and has proved himself in all formats. He also stated that until there are Manish and Kedar in the team, there will always be a competition.
#TeamIndia captain Virat Kohli talks to the media ahead of Sunday’s first Paytm ODI against Australia in Chennai. #INDvAUS
Posted by on Saturday, 16 September 2017
When asked about how the men in blue are looking this series against Australi, Kohli said,”I don’t think we need to look at any series differently. Your preparation should matter your preparations should matter more than who you are playing against. You will assess the strength and weaknesses of the teams but you cannot increase or decrease your intensity according to who you are playing against. That’s not being fair to the sport and that’s something we as a team do not believe is. So, we like to prepare the same way and play with same intensity regardless of who we are playing.”
The star spinners of the team, Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja has been rested for at least the first three games. On this, Virat said he would like to try with the all-rounders as most of the teams are doing the same now a days.
“A lot of teams are heading that way. You need depth in batting and you need depth in bowling as well. Those two all-rounders provide that kind of balance. Someone like Hardik Pandya or Axar Patel or Ravindra Jadeja. I think we need to identify two of those guys for your side to have more strength in both the departments,” Kohli said.
“It’s very very important. You need a proper all-rounder and not just a bowling and a batting all-rounder. It’s something we have focused and we will look to continue as well,” Kohli added.
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