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Cricket PlayersVirat Kohli on pressure in Bangalore: ‘I’m relaxed, I’m happy, I’m smiling...’
India have learnt their lessons from the debacle in Pune and will not repeat the mistakes in the second test against Australia, captain Virat Kohli said on Friday. His top quotes
Virat Kohli vowed there will be no repeat of India’s shambolic failure against Australia in the second Test and said he has no interest in Steve Smith’s mind games ahead of the Bangalore Test.
India’s record 19-match unbeaten run came to an unceremonious end when they slumped to a 333-run drubbing in Pune last weekend. Top quotes from Virat Kohli’s pre-match press conference on Friday.
On Pune and Steve Smith’s form:
“Basically, what was in our control (in Pune Test), we did not execute that. So we are not focusing on one player only (Steve Smith). Ten wickets have to be taken twice to win a Test and that’s something we already know.”
On revamping India’s game:
“Sometimes when you are winning a lot, you don’t tend to focus on points that need to be improved as such, because someone or the other is stepping up. When the whole team does not execute the things you want to, you understand the things you need to work on as a team.”
On pressure to win in Bangalore:
“Me? Does it look like? I’m pretty relaxed, I’m happy, I’m smiling. It’s fine. It’s his view, whatever he wants to say. I know these mind games in press conferences.”
On criticism after Pune loss:
“As a team, we never got excited by praise, we don’t focus on criticism either. What we focus on is what we think of each other as individuals in the change room and the respect that we maintain there.”
On team spirit:
“We take losses together, we take wins together and that’s how we move forward as a team. That’s one reason that we ended up having that streak, which we didn’t expect honestly. It became a streak eventually. Our focus was to win games, every game that we play.”
Looking back at Pune rout:
“Last game was a disappointment in the way we played, it wasn’t more about the result - we’ve lost before - but we’ve lost fighting hard. But when you don’t have enough intent during the game, that’s when it hurts you.”
Advantage Bangalore?
“The last time we played here against Australia, we won. Those things are big positives for us. We know exactly how the wicket plays. We know exactly what to do.”
