Virat Kohli Alone Can’t win the World Cup 2019
World Cup is the biggest festival in the life of any cricketer, every cricketer dies to perform at the biggest stage. Virat Kohli is one of the few lucky cricketers to represent the nation for three consecutive times in World Cup history, twice as a key player and this will be the first time he will be leading the team as a captain.
At this moment what he is looking for is a heavy dose of motivation? This time it is none other than Sachin Tendulkar, who has stepped up to encourage Virat Kohli and his boys to lift the cup for the third time.
In an exclusive interview with the PTI Tendulkar openly spoke his heart out at a wide range of topics related to Indian cricket and World Cup 2019. When asked if Kohli can handle the same expectations like he faced in 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, here is what he said.
“I think you will always have a couple of individuals stepping up every game but without team support, you can’t do much. Just because of one individual, you can’t win a tournament, No way. Unless others chip in at every crucial stage. If that doesn’t happen, there will be a disappointment,“
When asked that is he worried about the fourth position in the Indian team, he said he isn’t worried much and said that number 4 spot is flexible and can be filled as per the conditions and requirement of the match.
“I think you will always have a couple of individuals stepping up every game but without team support, you can’t do much. Just because of one individual, you can’t win a tournament,” he said
But Tendulkar showed his concern about the future of ODI cricket and called it more batsmen friendly game with nothing much for the bowlers in this format. It’s become one-sided with the introduction of two new balls and flat pitches have made lives of bowlers much more difficult. One team is scoring 350 and the other is chasing down inside 45 overs,” Tendulkar said in a reference to a recent England- Pakistan ODI series.
He was also concerned on how to reverse swing has gone out of the game due to two new ball concept in the game. Here is what he said “When we played and there was one new ball, it would start reversing from 28th or 30th over. Some teams could get it to reverse even earlier. At the death, the ball would go soft, even get discolored. These were challenges that batsmen faced. But now the ball remains hard and the bats are getting better,”
He also laid emphasis on the importance of wrist spinners and the role of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzwendra Chahal in the Indian team. He said “Let’s understand this. There are a number of bowlers who have been read well by batters but yet they end up getting a lot of wickets. So Kuldeep and Chahal shouldn’t be too worried about Australia series,”
“Agreed the Aussies read them well but does that mean they wouldn’t be committing mistakes or can’t be forced to commit mistakes.”
He gave the perfect example of Muttiah Muralitharan and said “Murali basically bowled two deliveries — traditional off-breaks and doosra. It’s not that batsmen never read Murali but he still ended up getting wickets,”
“There is a thing called error in judgment and that can happen with best of batsmen. You may think the ball would turn four inches but there is eight-inch turn. The distance between middling the ball and edging it is a mere deviation of less than two inches. Even when you know that an outswinger had been bowled, you still edge it,” he said.
When asked about the composition of the Indian team, he concluded by stating “There is a good balance in the side. We have a number of guys with 8-10 years of experience and at the same time, we have talented youngsters like Kuldeep, Rahul, Chahal, Hardik (Pandya) and Jasprit (Bumrah) with a couple of years of international cricket.
“So it’s a perfect blend with all the makings of a wonderful team. I rate our chances very high,”
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