Birmingham: Law of averages is one aspect in cricket that international teams are always wary of but Indian skipper Virat Kohli is not bothered one bit about what may happen if the famed and in-form Indian top-order flounders in the Champions Trophy semifinal against Bangladesh here Thursday. He also stated that India would field the same side they did against South Africa, which means that Umesh Yadav would once again warm the bench.
Asked if the lack of batting time for middle and lower-order, after three successful league games, could pose problems, Kohli was dismissive.
“No, that’s not a concern. Obviously, as a batsman you want to finish off games, so you are not necessarily going to get out to give the middle-order sometime in the middle. So, given an opportunity, everyone would like to finish games convincingly,” Kohli pointed out.
Kohli stated that the lack batting time during matches would only spur Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav to cash in and deliver whenever they are required.
“In the practice games, everyone has got a hit, and we know Kedar and Hardik are playing really well at the moment, so we are not bothered at all. I am sure those two guys are going to step up and take the team through along with Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin) and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) as well. Those guys are actually waiting for opportunities, and that’s a great mindset to have,” stated Kohli.
“They are not sitting comfortably thinking ‘oh these guys are going to do the job’. They are actually prepared if a crisis situation comes in… ‘we want to be the match winners’, (that) is the energy they are creating,” added a confident skipper.
Press Trust of India
