Virat Kohli Worried With IPL Ahead Of ICC World Cup 2019

If Virat Kohli’s press-conference ahead of the first T20I against Australia is anything to go by then one can say that the preparations for the World Cup has seriously started. Not only was Kohli was bombarded with questions regarding the World Cup and the captain himself answered all of them with utmost seriousness.

The much-awaited World Cup will get underway on May 30 with hosts England taking on South Africa in the tournament-opener at The Oval in London. The tournament will last for 45 days with 48 matches to be played. India will start their campaign against the Proteas on June 5.  The format for the 2019 edition will see 10 best teams in the world going head-to-head in a round-robin format. The tournament will culminate with the fifth final at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 14.

The upcoming two T20Is and five ODIs will be India’s last assignment before the World Cup gets underway. It will be the final chance for the Men in Blue to try out all the experiments before things get serious in England.

And Kohli made it clear that the team-management has already started planning for the tournament. The India skipper said that the team would been better served had the two T20Is were instead organised as ODIs. He also expressed his concerns over the IPL taking the players away from the ‘one-day mould of things’.

“All the people who are going to be part of the World Cup squad, they have to make sure that their games don’t go too much away from the one-day mould of things,” Virat Kohli told the media. “That means we will have to be very wary of the bad habits that might creep in during the IPL.”

“We need 15 people who are confident and mentally happy about where their game is at that particular moment. That will take a consistent effort from all the players during the IPL to keep a check on that. The moment we enter the nets and create bad habits, and you lose momentum, you lose batting form, it is very difficult to get it back in a tournament like the World Cup. So from that point of view, everyone will have to protect that mindset and be aligned towards what the team requires of them,” he further said.

Kohli also stressed on the importance of players being aware of the amount of preparation and more importantly rest. The workload in the IPL ahead of the World Cup has been a major of area of discussion as the Indian team-management has time and again said it would talk to the franchises to give the players adequate rest.

Kohli, who will lead Royal Challengers Bangalore, also echoed the same sentiments, saying that players can take games off if their teams are already in a good place in the IPL.

“The amount you practice, with the amount of travel during the IPL and the number of games in different conditions, in different temperatures, it is going to be challenging, to be honest. But as a cricketer, you have to map out how many practice sessions you really need. If you are hitting the ball well, there is no need to go to a practice session and tire yourself out for three hours whereas you can utilise that particular phase to rest and recover even more.

“I think those things need to be kept in mind. If your team is in a great position during the tournament, you don’t mind taking 2-3 games off also. It all depends on how you feel physically but everyone has to be really honest about it to themselves and accordingly see how they feel and not push themselves to the limit that might hamper the Indian team later on. I think we will all have to take responsibility for that,” said Virat Kohli.