The star batsman said that despite lagging 4-0 in the current ODI series, the Indian team's morale is still up. India play the hosts in a three-match T20 series after the ODI series concludes with the fifth and final game at Sydney.
Unfazed despite four successive defeats, a defiant Virat Kohli today insisted that the Indian cricket team is "not mentally bogged down" and said it would like to win the next four matches, including Saturday's final ODI, to cap the tour of Australia on a positive note.
The star batsman said that despite lagging 4-0 in the current ODI series, the Indian team's morale is still up. India play the hosts in a three-match T20 series after the ODI series concludes with the fifth and final game at Sydney.
"If we were mentally bogged down we wouldn't be able to compete at all. We just have to be smarter about chasing down totals. If the results were different, there would be different questions and different debates. But we have to respect this result and Australia are a tough side, and they know these conditions better," Kohli said at the pre-match press conference.
"They are on a streak of winning 18 games at home. So we need some extra bit of experience in such conditions. We would like to learn because we have to keep coming back here and we want to do well here," he said.
"Morale is the same as we came here two weeks ago. Everyone is still trying and working hard. We have believed in the four games that we can cross the line at any stage. We always knew that but we haven't been able to execute that. We have a game tomorrow and still have three T20Is. We would like to finish strongly, and win all these games left. So we are looking at these four games rather than two series separately because we will feel much better about ourselves, if we do well from here on," Kohli added.
Kohli, who has smashed two centuries on the tour, felt the team failed to capitalise on important moments. "We have played good cricket so far, but we have not capitalised on important moments. Still I feel we have been very competitive on the field. In international cricket it is all about capitalising on those moments which Australia has done better than us. If you see the four matches so far, results could have gone either way," said the Indian batsman.
"That is something we have really lacked. We haven't been able to close the games off and we need to learn this in international cricket. Next time I am certain this happens, guys will have learnt to do so because no one wants to tour abroad and lose games after playing well. It hurts even more. If you are not playing well it is a different story but when you are playing good cricket, it hurts more that you are not able to cross the finish line," he signed off.
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 "Virat Kohli")
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