Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
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"The endeavour of this (Indian) team is to be the best travelling team in the world" : Ravi Shastri
History may be against them but still India emerged from their resurgent performance in the one-sided victory at Trent Bridge thinking big and talking of becoming only the second team to come back from 2-0 down to win a five-Test series.
Don Bradman’s Ashes-winning Australia team of 1936-37 remain the only side to have pulled off such a comeback. Virat Kohli is the type of character to relish such a challenge, however, and, following a personally impressive 200-run match that included his second century of the series, he was speaking in emboldened terms.
“We definitely believe we can if we play cricket like this,” Kohli said after a 22nd Test win as captain that places him just five short of MS Dhoni’s all‑time record in charge of the national team. “Some people may have lost hope when we were 2-0 down but we never lost belief in the changing room. What goes on on the outside doesn’t matter to us. We want to keep pushing forward. It doesn’t matter who makes the runs or takes the wickets, we all have to put our hands up and make the impact performances.”
India’s turnaround from the heavy defeat at Lord’s owed much to Kohli finally receiving support at the other end, with Ajinkya Rahane’s 81 in the first innings and 72 from Cheteshwar Pujara in the second leading to stands of 216 and 130. The batsmen may have suffered from a lack of preparation before the series, but they now appear into their work.
Ravi Shastri, India’s head coach, said: “[It’s about] mental discipline. You’re going to look ugly, you have to leave a lot of balls. There’s no shortcut. You have to grind the opposition down when the opposition has Stuart Broad and James Anderson. They’ve got close to a 1,000 wickets and playing in their conditions, there’s no shortcuts and I don’t care who the batsman is. You’ve got to tell yourself: ‘If I need a hundred, I have to bat five hours.’”
Kohli’s bowling attack had an additional cutting edge, too, and most notably from Jasprit Bumrah, whose return from a broken thumb brought seven wickets from the unorthodox fast bowler and offered an extra degree of hostility for his captain – see the vicious bouncer to remove Chris Woakes on Sunday for details.
With Ishant Sharma enjoying a hold over England’s left-handed openers, Hardik Pandya, the all-rounder, repaying the faith shown in him with a maiden five-wicket haul and Bhuvenshwar Kumar expected to be fit from a back problem to challenge Mohammed Shami for his place, Shastri, was left purring.
Asked if this was India’s most potent stock of seamers ever, the head coach replied: “By a mile. By a mile. No team comes even close. Easy. Easily. In the four years I’ve been doing this job [he was previously director of cricket, before becoming head coach last year], I think if you look at a clinical performance overseas, this has to be the best. When you look at all three departments, they stood up. You can’t ask for more.
“The bottom line with this team is there’s not a negative bone in the body, because they believe they can win anywhere in the world. The endeavour of this team is to be the best travelling team in the world. And I believe they’re almost there.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-changing-room-virat-kohli-england-third-test
History may be against them but still India emerged from their resurgent performance in the one-sided victory at Trent Bridge thinking big and talking of becoming only the second team to come back from 2-0 down to win a five-Test series.
Don Bradman’s Ashes-winning Australia team of 1936-37 remain the only side to have pulled off such a comeback. Virat Kohli is the type of character to relish such a challenge, however, and, following a personally impressive 200-run match that included his second century of the series, he was speaking in emboldened terms.
“We definitely believe we can if we play cricket like this,” Kohli said after a 22nd Test win as captain that places him just five short of MS Dhoni’s all‑time record in charge of the national team. “Some people may have lost hope when we were 2-0 down but we never lost belief in the changing room. What goes on on the outside doesn’t matter to us. We want to keep pushing forward. It doesn’t matter who makes the runs or takes the wickets, we all have to put our hands up and make the impact performances.”
India’s turnaround from the heavy defeat at Lord’s owed much to Kohli finally receiving support at the other end, with Ajinkya Rahane’s 81 in the first innings and 72 from Cheteshwar Pujara in the second leading to stands of 216 and 130. The batsmen may have suffered from a lack of preparation before the series, but they now appear into their work.
Ravi Shastri, India’s head coach, said: “[It’s about] mental discipline. You’re going to look ugly, you have to leave a lot of balls. There’s no shortcut. You have to grind the opposition down when the opposition has Stuart Broad and James Anderson. They’ve got close to a 1,000 wickets and playing in their conditions, there’s no shortcuts and I don’t care who the batsman is. You’ve got to tell yourself: ‘If I need a hundred, I have to bat five hours.’”
Kohli’s bowling attack had an additional cutting edge, too, and most notably from Jasprit Bumrah, whose return from a broken thumb brought seven wickets from the unorthodox fast bowler and offered an extra degree of hostility for his captain – see the vicious bouncer to remove Chris Woakes on Sunday for details.
With Ishant Sharma enjoying a hold over England’s left-handed openers, Hardik Pandya, the all-rounder, repaying the faith shown in him with a maiden five-wicket haul and Bhuvenshwar Kumar expected to be fit from a back problem to challenge Mohammed Shami for his place, Shastri, was left purring.
Asked if this was India’s most potent stock of seamers ever, the head coach replied: “By a mile. By a mile. No team comes even close. Easy. Easily. In the four years I’ve been doing this job [he was previously director of cricket, before becoming head coach last year], I think if you look at a clinical performance overseas, this has to be the best. When you look at all three departments, they stood up. You can’t ask for more.
“The bottom line with this team is there’s not a negative bone in the body, because they believe they can win anywhere in the world. The endeavour of this team is to be the best travelling team in the world. And I believe they’re almost there.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-changing-room-virat-kohli-england-third-test
