Kohli talks against IPL 2019 having any influence: The Indian captain wasn’t concerned about the players’ form during the IPL.
India captain Virat Kohli has quashed all such reports of players’ performance in IPL 2019 affecting their spot in the Indian team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. The Indian players’ schedule is such that after playing the five-match ODI series against Australia, they will play the Indian Premier League and then the World Cup.
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With no international assignment right before the World Cup, a minimum of 14 matches of the IPL have it in them to work against the players. However, Kohli sounded unconcerned about the same as he spoke to reporters during the pre-series press conference.
“No, I don’t see the IPL having any influence on World Cup selection. I think that will be very, very radical sort of analysis,” Kohli was quoted as saying.
“We need to have a solid team”
Laying emphasis on a solid team for the world event, the 30-year old cricketer aimed to zero in on the same before the IPL begins. Kohli spoke against both in-form IPL players getting a go in the World Cup squad and out-of-form IPL players being ignored.
“We need to have a solid team. Before we head into the IPL, we need to be absolutely clear of what team we want for the World Cup. I don’t see anything changing on how the IPL goes for any of the players.
“If one or two players do not have a good IPL season, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the picture for the World Cup. Those things are not going to matter,” Kohli said.
Kohli dissects reasons for T20I series loss
Coming on the back of an unbeaten streak during the Australia tour, the Indian team was expected to continue the momentum against the same opposition back home. However, the hosts ended up getting whitewashed 0-2 in the T20I series.
“We could not win the T20 series because in the first match, we didn’t play good cricket and in the second match, Australia played better than us. I think it’s important you understand why we lost,” Kohli reflected on the T20I series loss.
The Indian skipper also mentioned that sheer experimenting wasn’t the aim of the Indian team. “From outside, it’s easy to say, they don’t have the heart to play. We always want to win games for India. If we only had to experiment, we would have got out for 50 as everybody would have got out trying to hit sixes.
“If you see it negatively, you’ll only be able to extract negative things but if you look at it positively, you’ll be able to take positive things,” Kohli concluded.
