Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 3 (ANI): India skipper Virat Kohli likes to spend quality time at the nets before a game and he was seen putting in the hard yards on Wednesday as he geared up to take the field against England in the fourth and final Test, starting Thursday.
Kohli shared a video of him batting at the nets on Twitter. In the 42-second long video, the captain could be seen working on his off-side play that included defending the ball as well as hitting some crisp drives.
While the debate over the pitch has taken the centre stage in the ongoing Test series between India and England, Kohli’s men are a step away from making it to the final of the World Test Championship (WTC).
If India manage to win or draw the final Test against England, the side will qualify for the final of the WTC and they will take on New Zealand in the summit clash.
The hosts will be riding on the confidence following their back-to-back wins in the last two Tests after suffering a massive 227-run defeat in the first game in Chennai. In the last Test, played with the pink ball in Ahmedabad, India registered a 10-wicket win within two days.
Earlier in the day, Kohli said the World Test Championship (WTC) is a distraction for them as the team is already motivated enough to play Test cricket or any form of the game.
“To be brutally honest it (WTC) might work for teams that are not motivated enough to play Test cricket. Teams like us who are motivated to play Test cricket and want to win Test matches and keep the Indian cricket team at the top of the world in Test cricket, we have no issues whatsoever whether it is WTC or not,” Kohli said in a virtual press conference.
“I think for teams like us, it is just a distraction when you start thinking of WTC. Eventually, it is only a game of cricket. World Cup final, semifinal anything you take it is the game of cricket at the end of the day. And if you are not motivated to play a normal game of cricket and extra motivated to play a game of cricket which has some incentive to it, for me, as an individual that is unacceptable,” he said.
“We as a team have never played with that mindset. For us any game is important, we are going to go for result whenever an opportunity presents itself that’s why people want to watch us as a team now,” he added. (ANI)