Virat Kohli sends early warning to New Zealand

After going 1-0 down in the series and especially after getting beaten by ten wickets in the first ODI, India showed great character to bounce back and win the series 2-1. Skipper Virat Kohli was extremely proud and satisfied with the efforts of his players and expressed his desire to carry the momentum into the New Zealand tour.

India will play five T20Is, three ODIs, and two Tests against the Kiwis in a tour that will begin with the T20I series from January 24. Although India lost the T20I series 1-2 the last time the Men in Blue toured New Zealand, they had won the ODI series 4-1 and Kohli wanted to take positives from that series win.

“We are taking a lot of confidence from our performance (in NZ) last year. We were very positive in how we played, very sure of what we wanted to do. The thing about playing away is if you’re able to put the home team under pressure, you can enjoy your cricket,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

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Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were key in that Indian team that won the ODI series as they picked up wickets in the middle-overs and restricted the run-flow. This is something that Kohli wanted to focus on this time around as well.

“You have to win at home, there’s that sort of feeling (for hosts). So if you bring out your A game, you can really put them under pressure. That’s what we did last year, squeezed them in the middle overs, picked up wickets, spinners were outstanding. Looking forward to take that same intensity into the series,” Kohli asserted.

In the current home season, India had to make comebacks from being 1-0 down in the ODI series against West Indies, the T20I series against Bangladesh, and the latest ODI series against Australia. Kohli realized that this was something very difficult for the team and wanted his team to address this issue on the New Zealand tour straightaway.

“Again, we want to bat well when we bat first and in case we’re defending a low total, we should be able to do that as well. We can’t afford to ease into the series after two games, because then it keeps getting tougher and tougher, so we’ll look to make a mark in the first game that we play,” Kohli revealed.