Virat Kohli contradicts Ravi Shastri, says he doesn’t feel India were under-prepared for South Africa series

Revealing that he always keeps thinking and analysing his game Virat Kohli also said that he is learning everyday as a captain.

India did not play a single practice match and subsequently went on to lose the first two Tests. (Source: AP)

Virat Kohli, captain of the Indian cricket team, has said that his side was not underprepared for the Test series against South Africa. His statement comes in sharp contradiction to what coach Ravi Shastri spoke a day before when he said that India should have spent more time preparing for the African challenge. India did not play a single practice match and subsequently went on to lose the first two Tests.

Speaking to the reporters, a day before the match, Kohli said, “I personally don’t feel that we didn’t feel prepared starting this series. I won’t sit here and point that out after losing a Test series. We had a week to prepare ourselves, five days because one day we were travelling.”

“So we had that and we went ahead with that. As I said, we are not going to sit and think of outside factors that made us lose. It was our errors, our mistakes of not capitalising on situations that led us to the result being 2-0 so far. Responsibility isn’t just one-sided. I think it’s a collective responsibility of every one and those aspects (of preparing early) are and have been a point of consideration for a while,” the Indian skipper added.

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Revealing that he always keeps thinking and analysing his game Kohli also said that he is learning everyday as a captain.

“As a captain as well, you want to proudly do better in situations when the game has gone away from you at times. So, I have thought about those things as well – how you can still keep the pressure on and not let the game slip away in very quick time,” he said before adding, “I always keep thinking about my game, how I can learn as a captain and get better in every aspect of what I do. Even focusing on the positives, you need to be able to still work on your positives to be able to be a consistent international player over a period of time. I have never stopped learning and I will never stop learning.”

Reflecting on India’s poor batting performance, Kohli said, “We are looking to correcting our mistakes in these two games and intent is going to be a big part of it. Intent can be leaving the ball or defending the ball as well. With your body language you can get to know how a person is feeling. That’s precisely what I meant.

“That’s always going to be a big factor. When you are playing in conditions that are not your own, your belief and your body language in each minute of a Test match matters. As a collective unit that is something we have discussed and that is something the guys are looking forward to embrace,” the Indian captain signed off by saying.

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