Virat Kohli: India have momentum, hold psychological egde over NZ

Virat Kohli

Kanpur: These are still early days for Virat Kohli as India's Test skipper, but he is maturing fast. He has a clear thought process and puts his ideas across strongly. He may be aggressive outwardly, but has a cool mind and it's not easy to ruffle him. He is also too shrewd a person to be swayed by one victory and realises that one swallow does not make a summer. He is well aware what complacency can do to a team.

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"You're playing against world class sides. It's Test cricket at the highest level, so people (rivals) are going to hit back and come hard at you. But we have the momentum and we hold the psychological edge," the skipper said after India defeated New Zealand by 197 runs at Kanpur in their historic 500th Test match to take lead in the three-match series.

Mohammed Shami celebrates the dismissal of Mark Craig with skipper Virat Kohli and other Indian teammates yesterday. Pic/AFP

"The first game of the series is very important, any series that you play - whether at home or away. Whoever gets the first advantage over the other team will go into the second Test feeling more confident for sure," Kohli added after India wrapped up the match an hour after lunch on the final day.

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"But it doesn't mean that we can take things for granted, because we know that we're playing a quality side. For them to show the resilience and the character that they did over the five days of this game, we know that we cannot afford to be relaxed at any stage. We took a lesson. We got relaxed in phases in this game and they capitalised, they were on the mark throughout the game," he said."Credit goes to them. They are a team that works really hard, I know that for a fact. They are very smart about their cricket and they believe in their abilities and that shows on the field. So we do take an advantage into the second game, but we're taking nothing for granted," Kohli asserted.

Kohli realises that he and his team cannot let their guard down, but will have to rethink their strategy in the bowling department. There were phases in the Kanpur Test when India seemed to miss the services of leg-spinner Amit Mishra. Luckily, Mohammed Shami provided two crucial breakthroughs to open the door to victory. "Kolkata might not be as slow or turn as much as Kanpur did. We know Kolkata is a much better batting wicket, so we can afford to maybe play an extra bowler there, you never know. But it's a place where it will help the two quality spinners that we have, and reverse swing coming into play as well - you know the two crucial wickets by (Mohammed) Shami in the second innings, first breakthrough by Umesh (Yadav) in the first - it makes a massive difference," Kohli explained.

"You obviously have to strengthen your batting on a wicket that might go 50-50. You never know, the game can slip away very quickly. And the extra batsman helped, I mean, Rohit (Sharma) got runs in the second innings, pretty solid with Jadeja. Both were able to play positively, and gave us an hour extra to bowl at them. Maybe we would have otherwise declared with our tailenders batting one hour after tea. But, that gave us the whole session yesterday and we got four wickets. So that makes quite a bit of difference. "

Kohli said that the team think-tank will sit in Kolkata before the Test and work out the strategy.

"Having intelligent people in the change room obviously helps you make better decisions as you go on. You understand the game much more, you understand the combinations much better and you can afford to take smart decisions according to the wicket that you're playing on," Kohli said without giving away much on the strategy for the second Test.

The one thing Kohli has done is to make the atmosphere in the dressing room very relaxed and made the goals of the team amply clear, in which each player realizes the role he has to play.

"If you have honesty in the change room, if you have an environment that is relaxed, the players will be able to express themselves better on the field. They will understand, they will listen to you. They will have the trust. They trust you are not saying anything that will harm them. It's only for the benefit of the whole team. Once you have that environment in the change room, it becomes very easy as a captain to ask anything of any player. And everyone is ready all the time.

"One thing we have spoken (in the dressing room) about is we want to play a certain brand of cricket. Along those lines, personal performances will happen or won't happen. If they happen, yes you feel good about them, but the eventual target is to win games and win series. We want to be a high-quality team for a long time. It's just to get them rid of those pressures of individual performances. That, I think, is key."