Sometimes you need to give openers games to get back in form: Virat Kohli

Indian skipper Virat Kohli and his side might have lost the final ODI in the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. They might have even been privy to a heartbreak given the fact that they came within touching distance of securing a win, but the fact of the matter remained that they won the series on the back of a few great performances.

Kohli, who has finally taken over as skipper of all three formats from MS Dhoni went on to state that the opening batsmen needed time and a few matches to get back into the form they are capable of. He also believed that the likes of Rohit and Dhawan could very well be the magical opening pair for the country yet again.

“We have good openers. Sometimes you need to give them games to get back into form. You don’t get many players ready for international level. Maybe, it will click at the Champions Trophy, where we first saw Shikhar (Dhawan) and Rohit (Sharma). It is not as if we need to search for openers. We need to back the ones we have.”

The 28-year old also spoke about the death bowling the Indians have seen in recent times, something that has ideally not been at its best. However, he went on to add that it would get better as the number of T20Is the Indians played went up.

“The more T20s we play, we will get better at death bowling in the ODIs. That will be our advantage. As far as batting is concerned, obviously the one area we look to focus on is to maintain our batting techniques and use T20s and ODIs as an extension of our Test batting. That means not necessarily getting reckless and slog every ball. It is very important to understand how to score in competitive conditions. The focus will be on not wanting to overdo things.”

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Speaking about Hardik Pandya, Kohli said, “(He) helps in balancing team. (He) allows you to play that extra batsman, two-seamers, and two spinners. He bowled really good areas today, one of the few bowlers who hit the deck hard and got more purchase. He showed good instinctive ability with the bat. He is getting smarter and more intelligent with the bat. (He) understands the importance of rotating the strike and when to hit boundaries.”