Not going to take England for granted: Virat Kohli

Team India will start the Test series against England from tomorrow at the SCA Stadium in Rajkot while the analysts and the pundits have been certain that the India starts as firm favorites to clinch the series the team doesn’t want to get all complacent ahead of the series given that it is a five-match series and England led by skipper Alastair Cook is a competitive Test side.

Indian captain Virat Kohli today said that they are not taking things for granted since the last time Cook & Co. landed in India they stunned the hosts with their performance to fly back with the trophy. When asked about the team combination in the media interaction ahead of the game, Virat said, “Well the combination is something I would not speak about at this stage.”

“I wouldn’t say that England struggled; they played really well in the first Test, in the second Test Bangladesh played better in their conditions. England is a side that has come to India last time and played well, so we not going to take anything for granted.” He further added.

The England series is probably the most important one they play in this home season since Cook exactly knows how to beat India in India having done that the last time and it was he who inspired his team playing a marathon knock in the opening Test at Ahmedabad last time where he batted for 9 odd hours.

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Virat said that his team is confident of what they are capable of and at the same time are making sure they have figured out how to tackle the opposition.“We are playing very good cricket and need to focus on our strengths, but you cannot ignore your opposition altogether. At the same time you have to be confident in what you want to do as a captain and that’s the one thing that we have focused on, and that’s the main reason we are getting the results in the last 12-14 months and that’s something that we want to continue,” the Indian skipper said.

To do well for a longer duration, rather to dominate Test cricket, you need a unit of players who take up the responsibility one after the other. That way you have an entire team of match winners and not just one or two who take the entire burden of scoring runs or picking wickets. Virat said that this team is very much willing to get over individual excellence and focus on the collective efforts and results. “This team has bought into the idea of collectively performing is better than some individual performances and not winning. So that’s one thing that has been really pleasing for me as a captain.”

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