We would like to keep Alastair Cook under pressure, says Virat Kohli ahead of first Test

Virat Kohli at practice ahead of the first Test against England

The Indian ace batsman Virat Kohli, in an official interview ahead of the first Test match against the hosts, mentioned that his side will be looking to keep the struggling opposition captain under pressure.

“We know he’s a quality player and he can come back at any time. We’d like to keep him under pressure and get him out early, because the English batting has revolved around him for the last few years.

“He’s going to be a big player in this series and we’d like to get him early to get momentum,” Virat said.

Before expressing the need to get Cook early, Virat recalled his last visit to India: “Cook was batting brilliantly when he came to India (in 2012) and he made full use of that. Obviously, right now, things have been pretty difficult for him. Everyone goes through that phase where they don’t score runs, but because he has the captaincy as well that might be troubling him”.

The England captain Alastair Cook’s recent struggle for runs has been the prominent topic of debate for the cricketing world after he failed as a capain for the second successive series against Sri Lanka on the back of a complete 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia.

Many cricketing personalities have been expressing their support and criticism for the left-hander who has not managed a win in his last 8 matches as a leader. To add his woes, his last century came against New Zealand in May 2013 and since then he has batted for 25 innings without managing a big score.

On facing England

Kohli has termed England as one of the toughest teams to face for sub-continent teams.

“This tour is right up there with South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. I would say these are the four places where sub-continental players do want to perform well. I too have that in my mind.

“It is a pretty special place to play cricket and I'll be playing a Test at Lord's for the first time. So all in all it is a very exciting tour for me personally because I have never played Test cricket here before and I am really looking forward to it.

"I have some goals I want to achieve, and I have been thinking about them. I'm pretty excited about playing here," he said.

Kohli didn’t play any Test the last time India toured England in 2011, but was part of the ODI squad. He replied in denial when asked if that whitewash was a talking point in the dressing room ahead of this series.

“We haven't spoken about what we did wrong in that series (2011). We've spoken about the positives we could take out of it. That was a different time. Three years down the line, we have a totally new side. Most of us haven't played Test cricket here.

“It'll be exciting for us to experience the conditions and everyone's eager to go out there and see what it's like.

“You get full crowds, everyone's involved in the game and everyone knows the game. It's not about washing that (2011) series off, erasing those memories. That will stay in the history books, whether we like it or not.

“All we can focus on is the new series we have here, and put in a strong performance which would be a starting point for this young team to go ahead and be a good quality Test side. A guy who played brilliantly in that series is mentoring us right now, speaking about his experiences, Rahul Dravid. That's a big plus,” remarked Kohli.

On Rahul Dravid

With Rahul Dravid having been appointed the batting mentor for the series, Kohli stressed on his role more as someone who’s faced the conditions here, rather than working on the techniques of the batsmen.

“He is not helping us on the technical side of things because everyone plays the game in a different way. But he is helping us understand the conditions here better, how much the ball will swing, for how long it will swing, how the conditions will affect the game, and so on.

“Dravid has spoken about the experiences he's had in England, scoring those hundreds and what he felt getting those runs in tough conditions. That's all you need as a batsman, getting into a player's head who has done it all here and getting into that zone yourself. It helps big time.

“He's tried to get us as mentally strong as he can and has been open to talk at any point of time about anything in anyone's batting or even bowling. He has a fair idea of where the bowlers have bowled to him. He's helped everyone and it's been great to have had him with the team and share his experiences with us,” Kohli added.