Indian skipper said that playing for India and becoming a father cannot be compared & he was invariably connected to the team even if he was in India
Indian skipper Virat Kohli has said that becoming a father was the greatest moment of his and wife and actor-producer Anushka Sharma's lives but mentioned that he was anyway attached to the Indian cricket team even if he was not physically present with the side for the last three Tests in Australia. Kohi mentioned that one needs to experience why he was saying what he did and added that connection with the team didn't go away.
Speaking at the virtual press conference before the four-match Test series against England, Kohli said, "The two cannot be compared. To me, becoming a father has been and will remain the greatest moment of my life. That is something that has to be experienced to understand what I am saying. The connection with the team doesn’t go away in any situation, especially when you have given everything for the team, especially for the Test team for the last six years on a daily basis. Being motivated to take Test cricket on top, take Indian cricket on top and the whole group has put in so much effort."
The skipper also revealed that he was watching Brisbane Test on his phone when the doctor called them in. “You are connected invariably and I was watching all the games. In the last Test, when Shardul and Sundar were going through a partnership, I was watching it on my phone just before when we had to go in when the doctor called,” Kohli said during the pre-match press conference.
Kohli, who had missed the three Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series had returned to India for the birth of his first child and Anushka gave birth to Vamika on January 11, the last day of the Sydney Test. Kohli returned for the series against England starting on Friday as the skipper of the side and Ajinkya Rahane will remain his deputy. India had beaten Australia by 2-1 to win the series by breaching Australia's Gabba fortress.
'Focus has been on winning, don't want to put too much pressure of WTC'
With New Zealand becoming the first team to qualify for the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) after the proposed series between South Africa and Australia was postponed, the race for the second finalist has heated up as it has become a three-way shootout between India, England and Australia. Since Australia won't be playing anymore matches in this period anymore, they will have to depend on the results of the four-match showdown between the other two teams.
Asked if team India will be under pressure to win atleast two games and draw one to book the place for a Lord's date with New Zealand, Virat denied it saying, "Not really! In this Australia series we didn't speak about winning because of the World Test Championship, I think it's a byproduct of you doing well as a team anyway. So there's no point putting extra pressure.
"For us it remains a game of cricket one at a time, one session at a time, one hour at a time and that's how the success is achieved in the longest format of the game," Kohli added.
Kohli even suggested that they maybe discussed the same in the New Zealand series which put them under pressure to do everything precisely and perfectly, which led them to lose the series pretty comprehensively by the Kiwis.
For India to qualify for the WTC final, they still need 70 points for their points percentage to be ahead of Australia when India will be done with the four-match series. This means Indis will have to win the series at least by 2-1 margin and anything better will only boost their points in the WTC points table.
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