Friendlies are strictly for off-site, not for the World Cup and definitely not when two great friends will battle it out at the MCG on Sunday. The prospect of a Virat Kohli-Dale Steyn face-off has already given juice to cricket chatter around the tournament and when the two “great buddies” meet on Sunday as two fierce rivals, it will set the tone for an on-the-edge match.
“I played with him in RCB for three years, and we became good friends. But come game time and I’ll be looking to dominate him and he’ll be looking to dominate me. He’s a completely different person on field, very aggressive, very passionate. Off the field, he jokes around, laughs all the time. It’s pretty similar with me,” Kohli said on match eve.
The upcoming battle notwithstanding, Kohli said, “I’ve shared great friendships with a lot of South African players over the years and Dale has to be one of the more special ones. There’s a good reason why he’s the best bowler in the world for a while now, and he’s so consistent because he has that mentality,” he added.
But Steyn should not be a problem now that the budding superstar has found the mental strength to mould his game according to the situation, something that has helped not just him as a batsman but also Team India as a whole.
“People will have plans for you. It’s all about how you stay a step ahead. The last game was a learning curve in how to play in different gears and how to mould my game according to the bowling. Sometimes you will have a single-minded approach that might pay off, but it doesn’t happen every time in international cricket. To be consistent, you have to switch, which I was able to do in the last game. It gave me more confidence in moulding my game according to the situation and the bowlers,” he explained.
From Kohli the aggressor to Kohli the sheet-anchor, the progression has been distinct and Kohli says that it’s a role he has been assigned to do and is happy doing it. Even as the likes of Steyn would be looking to not allow Kohli too much time to pace his innings, the batsmen has sorted out the issue in his mind and is quite clear about what’s needed for victory.
“At any ground, the role of finishers depends on how the top order bats. In Melbourne we have seen sustained momentum throughout the innings has been the successful way. Teams that have tried to slug it out in the last 10 usually don’t end up pulling off that many runs, especially teams that are not familiar to these conditions, because there’s more bounce, the boundaries are bigger, so it’s not easy to clear them on a regular basis.
So sustained momentum throughout the innings is important in a ground like Melbourne because it’s big, you have to hit angles, you have to hit gaps, and you have to run hard, and you have to place the ball more than power it over the boundary. It will be a calculated approach to batting, and we’ll have to make some changes according to how big the field is, and all the guys have played on this ground” Kohli said.
The positioning doesn’t matter to him. Be it No 3 or No 4 where he bats, he says “people need to have some patience with something that we try to do. We do a few experiments. I’ve played enough games to try and experiment the batting position for the team to be in the best combination, but we figured out that it’s best for me to bat at No.3, which I’ve done over the last few years, and we have got success because me or one of the top three batsmen has been able to bat through,” he said.
And he is right when he says this. In the last match, he scored a classy 107, the third on that ground. Smiling at Ravi Shastri’s opinion that he should be named Adelaide’s honorary, Kohli said “every ground in Australia is very special. Since I was a child I’ve seen legendary Test matches and one-day cricket and the World Cup in Australia, so it leaves this feeling when you step on to it because it has a lot of history to it. Who knew it’s going to turn out to be one of my most favourite grounds in the world.
It so happened on this tour I was able to score three centuries there. I’ve heard Brian lara say he loved Sydney so it felt nice that even I could sort of connect to that feeling of having a ground where you get support, as well, and then you perform good too,” he said, adding that there’s something about that ground. “I step on to Adelaide oval and there’s a different feeling I feel.”
Kohli signifies the new age Indian batsman — ready for a duel and readier for victory. Irreverent to opinion and yet a picture of meticulousness, wearing a vest showing off his heavily tattooed right bicep and looking casual in shorts, Kohli decided to give up the mandatory India cap at Press conferences to show off his Mohawk hairdo which looked as sound on him as the strokes he plays with his bat.