India’s focus would not be on the World Test Championship (WTC) final as it cost them the series in New Zealand in February 2020, instead would try to win Test matches against England, said India skipper Virat Kohli on Thursday.
“In New Zealand, we did discuss it (WTC final) a bit and that could have added extra pressure on us to do everything so precisely. We ended up being under pressure a little bit. But from Australia onwards, it was all about following a good process, preparing well, going out there and just understanding the situation and making sure we play according to the situation,” said Kohli.
While speaking to the media on the eve of the first Test against England beginning on Friday, the Indian captain said, “In this Australia series, we didn’t speak of winning because of WTC. I think it is a by-product of your team doing well anyway. There’s no point adding extra pressure. For us, it remains a game of cricket, one session at a time. One hour at a time. That is how success is achieved in the longest format of the game.”
“So no point thinking about something that is still months. It is important to stay in the present and take one day at a time and move forward,” he added.
Kohli will return to lead the Indian side after paternity leave. While talking to the reporters he mentioned that he was impressed by Indian youngsters and newcomers like Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini performing well in Australia.
Additionally, he said that the team’s plan of going for the win overseas and keeping draw as the last option helped them to do well and win the last Test in Brisbane.
“What happened in Australia recently, youngsters coming and performing is a special win for us. Because we did not have that much experience and the impactful performances they came up with, that can happen only with mindset, they thought that they will go, play and go for the win. Regardless of who we are playing against, the difference in experience, all that goes out of the picture and your focus stays on winning,” said 32-year-old captain.
“If we see our overseas tours, England or South Africa except New Zealand, we realised that we lost the match in 40-45 minutes. It was not that we were dominated in the Test when we played away from home. When we saw that result in the last Australia series, our belief got stronger that we were on the right path and we knew that we were going on the right way,” he added.
