India faces a ‘perform or perish’ situation in the Champions Trophy on Sunday but Virat Kohli is filled with nothing other than excitement. “As a cricketer, I crave games like these,” he said.
“If you perform in them and your team gets across the line, it’s a different feeling. It improves you as a cricketer. I never thought the game against Pakistan was the biggest of my captaincy career, and I don’t think this one is, either. To me, every game is the same; you win some, you lose some.”
The key to success in a knock-out game was to keep calm, Kohli felt. “You need to have a good balance of being competitive and passionate but not overexcited. A lot of times, teams come in and they want to do something special and end up messing up the game in important situations,” he said.
Kohli would not be drawn on his team composition. “We have definitely looked at the last game and where we can make a bit of change. I’m not going to reveal anything now, but any sort of combination is possible.”
Expecting Ashwin
A.B. de Villiers, meanwhile, believed India would field R. Ashwin. “I’ll be expecting to see him in the team tomorrow, so we are preparing to see him,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen, then so be it. I can’t say if we prefer to have to play against him or not. He’s a great bowler. He’s taken many wickets in the past and he’s had success against us, as well, in India. But that’s for them to decide.”
De Villiers felt pitches in all three Champions Trophy venues were different. “I’ve seen different lengths working [at different places],” he said. “We have set plans for all the Indian batters and we’ve analysed it really well through the last few days, and we feel prepared to go out there and play well.”
