IND vs PAK: Was Making Conscious Effort To Strike At A Higher Pace, When We Lost Wickets Our Plans Changed – Virat Kohli

Former India National Cricket Team captain Virat Kohli has asserted that he was making a “conscious effort to strike at a higher pace” in the high-voltage Asia Cup 2022 India-Pakistan clash, but the fall of wickets at regular intervals led to the plans being changed.

Pakistan beat India by 5 wickets on Sunday, September 4, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the Super 4 stage clash. Virat Kohli looked in good touch with the bat in the match and scored a brilliant 60 runs off 44 balls, before getting run out in the 20th over.

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Speaking at a press conference after the India-Pakistan game, Kohli said that he and Deepak Hooda batted cautiously because the situation forced them to do so.

“Today I was making a conscious effort to strike at a higher pace,” Kohli said at the post-match press conference.

“When we lost wickets, there was communication and our plans changed, where I had to bat till the 18th over with (Deepak) Hooda. If there were a couple of batters, I would’ve gone with the same tempo and tried to hit more boundaries or sixes. But again, I ended up being in a situation where I had to go deep.”

“Because after Hooda and me, it was Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), so the bowlers were to follow. That makes a bit of a difference, but we do possess the skills to analyse the situation and play accordingly as well.”

If we had a couple of wickets in hand, we could’ve got more runs – Virat Kohli

The modern-day batting great Virat Kohli, who looks to have found his mojo back after a lengthy lean patch, said that India could have posted more runs on the board if they had a couple of extra wickets in hand in the middle overs. Notably, India posted 181/7 on the board against arch-rivals.

“If you’ve seen the way we’ve been playing, it’s given us the results we need, and in our middle overs, the run rate has also improved,” Kohli said.

“It’s something I, as a batsman, really took keen notice of, and I knew that is one area we need to keep improving on. We’ve spoken about this that sometimes it won’t come off, the way you want and today, we lost a few wickets in the middle phase which didn’t allow us to go towards the 200 target.”

“But given the situation, if we had a couple of wickets in hand, we could’ve got more runs. We’re not disturbed by losing wickets through the middle overs, because that’s the way we want to play. We want to be able to get those 20-25 extra runs that can eventually make the difference in big games,” he added.

Virat Kohli further said that the management has created an amazing team environment.

“The camaraderie with the boys is amazing. The environment within the team is amazing, so I’m absolutely loving playing at the moment all over again and feeling good the way I’m batting,” he said.

Former India captain also lauded Pakistan’s Haris Rauf for bowling a great last over.

“He nailed those slower balls and yorkers, with that pace when you execute, it’s always difficult to get it away. I’m going to continue – especially batting first – to bat the (same) way, trying to take the game on and stay ahead of the asking rate, understanding the conditions and just bat freely.

“As long as I am in a good space and confident of my batting, I know I can bat in many ways. It’s just about getting back into the groove and getting confident with how you’re playing and once that happens then the situation dictates how you need to play,” he said.

Also Read: IND vs PAK: Haris Rauf Bowled A Great Last Over – Virat Kohli

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