Indian captain Virat Kohli is set to make a comeback as India prepares to take on New Zealand in the second match of a two-match series in Mumbai. With the series level, India will need Kohli to step up and ensure a series victory against the World Test Championship’s (WTC) defending champions.
Kohli is among many Indian players who were given a rest in the ongoing series. Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant have been given a break from the Test series while fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested for both the T20I and Test series.
On his return to the side, Kohli explained why it’s important for players to take a break amid the hectic schedule. The Indian ODI and Test skipper stated that workload management is more about the mental points of view.
In a pre-match press conference in Mumbai, Kohli said, “Important to refresh mentally. To practice in a place where we didn’t have a structured environment or with no cameras makes a huge difference. To maintain the quality we must consider such things. Managing workload is more important from the mental point of view.”
“I want to give my best, do the best possible thing for the team in a particular position. I take a lot of pride in doing that. It is all about putting in the hard yards. At the end of the day, you walk on the field knowing you are prepared fully,” Kohli added.
Kohli, who was spotted practicing at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) during his break, explained it was important for him to stay in rhythm and enter the correct headspace to play Test cricket.
“It was just to stay in the rhythm of playing red-ball cricket. The idea was to get repetition and volume which is important in Test cricket, so it is just about getting into the mould of switching between formats. This is something I have always tried to do. Whenever I get the opportunity to work on setting up for different formats, it is more so mentally than anything related to technique,” said Kohli.
He added, “The more cricket you play, the more you understand your game better. It is about getting into the mindset, that headspace where you want to play a certain way in a certain format,”
While Kohli is set to return to the playing XI, it remains to be seen who he replaces. While Shreyas Iyer impressed on his debut, senior batsmen like Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara had poor outings in Kanpur.
