India skipper Virat Kohli defended the strength of his middle order, Vijay Shankar’s outings thus far and MS Dhoni’s strange failure to rotate the strike and be among the runs this season. He said, the job by his unit is being done just fine and the dressing room was in a good space. Excerpts of his interaction with the media on the eve of the all-important match against the hosts England:
What’s the status of Bhuvi now? And Shami has bowled well in the last two matches. Is it a nice headache to have?
Bhuvi’s been a world class bowler and he's a permanent starter for us in the shorter formats. Shami, in the last year-and-a-half, has come around amazingly well. I’ve never seen him fitter, hungrier to take wickets, and he knows how to pick wickets. Even in the last game, the way he was bowling with the new ball on a pitch that was dry, that was amazing. Bhuvi is recovering very fast. When he gets fit, it's going to be a bit of a headache for us to see what we're going to do. Bumrah, I don't think we even need to discuss him anymore because he's separated himself from everyone else.
What’s your assessment of Vijay Shankar?
There’s not much that needs to be tinkered. Sometimes you just need a bit of luck to get from 30 to 60 and play a defining knock for the team. He’s very close to that and we’re confident he's going to end up playing that kind of knock for us. He’s in a good head space.
Can you comment on the middle order issues?
That discussion is always going to go on because we’ve had such a strong top order that these guys have hardly had a chance to bat. When they bat, out of four times, if once or twice it doesn't come off, then we feel like, oh, it’s not a strong middle order, but we overlook the times that it has come good. When you win games and people are contributing, you need to be content with that. In the first three games, we were getting 300 plus and no one said anything. We were like, oh, this is an amazing batting order. Then one game where we could not accelerate as much as we'd like to have as a team, everyone says that maybe it’s not as strong.
So I think what matters for us in the change room is even a 25, 30-run contribution, if it's getting to a score which can win you a game of cricket, that's more than enough for us. We're not looking at entertainment out there in the middle. We're not looking at playing cricket which is looking flashy. We want to be calculated. We want to play percentage cricket because, as I said, the team that handles pressure well is going to win games of cricket which are hanging in the balance.
We're comfortable and happy with how everyone is playing.
Former cricketers are saying that MS needs to work on strike rotation…
He knows exactly what he needs to do. I don’t think that he’s ever been a cricketer that's ever had the need to be told what exactly he needs to do. It’s a lot of things happen on the outside. What we experience and what we know inside the change room is the most important thing to us, and we have total belief in him, and he stood up for the team many times, especially if you look at this calendar year and the kind of performances he’s given. I don't think it's fair to point out one or two performances which anyone can falter with the bat.
We’re not looking too much into it. He knows exactly what he needs to do. After the last game, he went into the nets. He worked hard. He put in a performance and got us to a winning total, and we won the game. We got two points. We're very, very happy and comfortable with, as I said, where we stand as a team and how the batting is going at the moment.
Are you surprised that England have struggled at this tournament? A good opportunity for you to almost end their World Cup hopes?
Everyone is a bit surprised … we thought England is going to dominate in their own conditions, but as I said pressure is going to be a massive factor to handle and low scores are going to be defended. I said that because I have played two World Cups and that usually happens in such a big tournament where all teams are very strong. We got a scare from Afghanistan, another low-scoring game against the West Indies. So you can’t take anything for granted. Other teams have outplayed England on occasions and that can happen to any side. Although we haven’t lost a game until now, we still can’t be complacent. The reason why we won all the games is because we've been professional and precise in pressure moments.
Do you think the pressure told for England?
Well, I couldn’t explain that. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe it was just decision-making. It’s for them to assess, not me.
A lot of comments on pitch conditions with Johnny Bairstow saying this is not the kind of tracks we expected in England. Is that pressure telling on the team?
It is not my problem, to be honest. We didn’t come here with any kind of expectation of how the pitches are going to be. To be a good quality side, you need to adapt to the situation in front of you. In the last two games, I experienced that the pitch deteriorated while I was playing. It’s about finding ways to win, finding ways to score runs. That’s something we take a lot of pride in as a team.
Individually and as a team, what do you do to cope with pressure?
The focus is basically to do individually what we have been selected to do, what we have been doing for years. The more basic you can keep things in a tournament like the World Cup, the better chances you have of being one up against the opposition under pressure. The more you attach emotion or excitement or too much pressure to an occasion, you can't make good decisions.
We’ve given a total team performance till now, and that’s purely because everyone’s just looking to execute what they need to for the team. No one’s trying to get more wickets than the other person. No one's trying to score more runs than the other person. It’s all about, in that situation, how can I contribute for the team? That focus helps us as a side to cope with pressure situations. It's very simple, basic. Focus on our skill sets, not too much on the opposition.
When you go to bat, you don’t seem to be under any pressure. Can you tell us, how do you handle pressure?
It would be a lie if I say I'm not under pressure. I’m probably good at hiding it. Everyone feels butterflies in their stomach. I'm glad I feel like that. If I don’t, then probably I don’t have enough motivation to play anymore because, when you walk up to bat, you don’t necessarily look at the number of runs you've scored or what you’ve done in your career. It’s about that particular day. That is the excitement that all of us carry as international cricketers is to walk into a pressure situation and come out on top and feel like, yes, we’ve done something for the team today.
Those are the kinds of things that drive me. You give anyone a difficult situation and have them bat well in that situation and get the team out of trouble, there's no better feeling. I look forward to that, and maybe that’s why my body language is the way it is. But in all honesty, everyone feels pressure. It's just the way you portray it to the opposition is what makes all the difference.
Your attitude needs to be right. You need to feel the pressure but want it. If you feel the pressure and you don’t want it, then it shows on the field. I'm glad that I want it and I'm able to put myself in that mindset.
