India captain Virat Kohli addressed the press ahead of the three-match ODI series against England in Pune. Kohli spoke about the opening combination for the ODI format, his ambitions as an opener in T20Is, the concept of umpire’s call and soft signal, and so on.
Excerpts of Press Conference of Virat Kohli
On opening combination
“Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma will definitely start. When it comes to ODI, there are no doubts about that. They’ve been amazing over the past few years.”
On whether he’s sending out a message to selectors that he wants to open in T20Is
“The combination that plays on the field, the selectors don’t have any role just like management doesn’t have a say in the selection.
“As Rohit mentioned, it was a strategic move but we enjoyed batting together and we saw the effects of batting together. It’s not a guarantee that this is going to continue in the future. I am going to open in the IPL to keep all options. Now I want to understand my role as an opener as well so that I can open up a slot for someone like Surya. I should be able to play any kind of role that the team requires me to. We’ll take a call closer to the World Cup.”
On the tight schedule amid living in bio bubbles
“Scheduling is not in our control. Every international game is important and an opportunity to represent your team. Along the way, the scheduling and workload is something everyone has to be aware of. In this day and age, you just don’t know where restrictions will come in. Not just the physical side, but also the mental side as well – players have to be spoken to and consulted. Otherwise, it will be difficult.
“Then it will be a situation where whoever is stronger and able to go through plays a lot more matches, that’s not a good culture.”
On umpire’s call and soft signal
“According to me, umpire’s call is creating a lot of confusion. If the ball is clipping the stumps, the bails are going to fall. From a basic cricket sense, there should be no doubts about that. It doesn’t matter how much of the ball hits the stumps.
“One more factor to be considered is how the fielding side responds to a dismissal defines the soft signal as well. You’ve then got to question spirit of cricket. If things like that happened to the Indian team especially overseas, then you talk about the spirit of cricket. There should be no grey areas.”
