Ambati Rayudu playing well is a confidence booster for the team: Virat Kohli

India are currently in a rich vein of form as they took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series against New Zealand. Virat Kohli and Co thumped the Black Caps by seven wickets at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui to pocket the series. Earlier, the Men in Blue also won their maiden bilateral ODI series on Australian soil as they won the three-match series 2-1 after going 0-1 down.

With the triumph against the Kiwis’, the next two matches in the 50-overs format are nothing, but a dead rubber. Following the stupendous victory, Kohli sounded ecstatic and delighted with the team performance. The 30-year-old won’t be a part of the remaining matches, including the T20I series.

When asked about whether the team’s intensity would drop in his absence, Virat said it won’t impact his team. “Not at all. Now things are more or less running in auto mode for us,” a confident Kohli was quoted as saying in the post-match press conference.

Kohli talks about the number four position

Meanwhile, questions around who should be batting at number four have been doing the rounds. MS Dhoni batted at that position for one match in Australia. Ambati Rayudu didn’t do well on the tour. But he has managed to churn out a couple of useful knocks of 47 and 40 not out. Kohli mentioned that Rayudu doing well is a massive confidence booster for the batting unit.

“If you look at the last five games (two in Australia and three here), I have said that No. 4 is a position that we are looking to solidify but when (Ambati) Rayudu starts playing like that, you start feeling more confident about the batting line-up,” Kohli remarked.

Talking about Dinesh Karthik, who replaced MS Dhoni in the playing eleven today, Virat remarked: “Dinesh (Karthik) is in great form as well, he can step in at any time if we need to shuffle the middle order, MS is hitting the ball really well, so I don’t think after looking at the first three games, we have a lot to worry about.”

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