IND Vs SL 2017: Virat Kohli Looking to Keep the Energy levels Up

Sri Lanka’ tour of India is about to begin on November 16, and both the teams are looking forward to getting the better of each other in the reverse fixture. The two teams last met when India toured to the island nation and completely decimated the Sri Lanka team at their home and whitewashed the hosts in all the three formats, leading to a 9-0 victory throughout the tour.

The Indian team has called back the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for the upcoming Test series after the duo was dropped from the team after the last Test series India played against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. Selectors quoted that the two spinners have been rested after the heavy workload and the duo was not picked up for the limited overs series against Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand.

On the workload, Virat Kohli said:

“Tough to speak on workload. There’s a lot of talk about whether players should be rested or not. From the outside it looks like why are people asking for rest. Everyone played same number of games. But it’s important to understand that not everyone had the same kind of workload in every game that you play. We have built such a strong core team now of 20-25 players, you don’t want important players breaking down at important times. That is where the balance needs to be maintained. It’s humanly impossible to maintain the same kind of intensity for a player who plays all three formats. Definitely, I do need a rest. When I think that my body needs to be rested, I’ll ask for it. I am not a robot you can cut my skin and check, I bleed.”

The Indian team has been on a fantastic run on home soil and has not lost a series since they last lost the ODI series to South Africa in 2015. The Indian team is currently ranked number one in the Test format and are tied at the top spot with South Africa in the ODI series.

Virat Kohli addressed the media ahead of the first Test and spoke about the intensity of the team:

 “Another series for us, you know we’ve played so much cricket now, it all about good preparation keeping our energy levels and go for quality training and up not necessarily go for quantity because that can also lead to bad habits, when you know you are playing well and you are in a good zone and then over practice, that also leads to you know the mindset going off.”

Talking about the dilemma over the opening slot and choosing two options from the three available:

 “The balance has always swung every now and then between two guys doing well and one of them missing out, it happened with KL initially, then it happened with Shikhar. Now that KL and Shikhar are playing well its very difficult to pick two out of three batsmen. All three are so good, they’ve done well. I think Shikhar’s comeback as a revelation to himself and for the team, his counter attacking skills are something that really gave all the batsmen base to work in and also it deflates the opposition to certain extent so they all have different skill sets and different strengths”