India vs Australia: Virat Kohli explains how his team will tackle 'elite honesty' Down Under

The Indian team is returning to Australia. This time for a crucial series that gives them the best opportunity to create history and win a maiden Test series on Australian soil. Images of an angry young Virat Kohli giving it back to the Australians word for word cross the mind when one thinks of India in Australia among all the other glorious batting and bowling feats on the cricketing field across generations.

Australia, which is weakened by the absence of David Warner and Steve Smith, and which is on the downslide since the Sandpapergate, have changed their attitude towards the game. Gone are their days of sledging the opposition out, and showing their bad image of winning at all costs.

Going by the recent series against South Africa, and it was very un-Australian, one could see a quiet series between the two with the Aussies turning up on the field, giving it their all within the limits and going back. Visions of Mitchell Starc walking back with a smile on his face, picking up his sweater and cap from the umpire after being clobbered for 20 runs in an over are very un-Australian.

“Elite honesty” is the new buzzword in the Australian dressing room. Ask Kohli if he will be surprised with the Australian new behaviour on the without words exchanged, not even a stare at the batsman, and he said on the eve of the Indian team’s departure Down Under: “That’s a very personal thing for them. I don’t know the reason behind it. So, I can’t comment on it. But, when it comes to getting engaged in an argument on the field, or in a fight as people want to call it exciting, I have been completely okay to play without any altercation. I am very happy within my own space.”

Kohli, who has since the last trip, changed as a person and cut down his angry young man image, especially after taking over the mantle of Indian captaincy. He explained: “On a personal level, I don’t find the need to go and find these things any more. I have enough belief in my ability that I can play without the reason to pump myself up. Those were very immature things that I used to feed on in the early days of my career so that I can get pumped up and then I don’t necessarily feel the pressure and then the focus is precise.

“Now being captain, you literally have no room for anything else but to think of what the team needs all the time. You don’t find the need for these things at all. They (Aussies) will not give it back. We were always the ones giving it back, we were never the ones starting. As long as it doesn’t start, we have no problem in focussing on our game and doing what we need to do. We don’t necessarily need to go and look out for something. If they want to play a certain way, we will reciprocate it the same way. That’s how the game of cricket goes. In our minds, we have to keep it competitive and not let our energies drop.”

Batsmen have to step up

With India to start the Australian tour with three T20Is followed by four Tests and concluding with three ODIs, Kohli said that the team has learnt the lessons from the 1-4 Test defeat in England and that the batsmen have to click to complement the bowlers, who he believed can take 20 wickets every game.

“From the last time we went there, the fitness levels are definitely way up, which I think is the most important factor in Australia because the pitches there can be really boring at times and the Kookaburra ball does not move so much at times. It is about patience and about maintaining that pace that you start the day with, maintaining it throughout. We are feeling good that we have a great bowling attack now but the batsmen need to step up, which we have spoken as a team after England and everyone is really keen to correct those things and put in a complete performance.

“So we put in a complete performance for a game, which we want to last for a series and for that to happen again, people have to take more ownership on every Test match we play and our focus will be more will be on how the batsmen bat well together on this tour, because the bowlers are in a great space and they exactly know what exactly they want to do. After a long time, we feel we can pick up 20 wickets every game, which is a great feeling to have. The whole combination has to come together to win a series and not just one Test match.”

Kohli spoke about a host of other things during the press conference in Mumbai on Thursday:

On where the team stands now...

"Personally I feel we definitely have made decent progress but there is still a lot of room for improvement. It is up to the individuals to take ownership of that, take responsibility, the things that are explained, that are laid out as expectations from team culture or team goal point of view. That can only be achieved when individuals go and work on those things. There were a lot of things we sat down and figured out after England as to what went wrong. To be honest, we all felt that there was not much that went wrong but whatever was not right was not extreme also. We played good cricket but the mistakes were also extreme, that is why we lost that many number of games, rather than winning those moments and winning the game. We need to strike a decent balance of when the situation is against us, how to control it better and how to find a way out of it rather than wanting to get out of it immediately. On an individual level, I’d want to do those things more and we expect that from the whole team as well. Those are things that we are really keen on showing in our next venture, especially in Test cricket because in T20s and ODIs we have played really good cricket. I think it is Test cricket we need to tighten things."

On what needs to be done to cross the line in Tests...

"From the management point of view, things are explained in a proper manner where people are told what needs to be done in a situation. If I am told that it’s a difficult situation and I need to find a way, no one can tell me every ball what shot I need to play or no one can tell me the decision I make every ball because I am by myself out there. So, at that very moment, when you are playing every ball, the focus has to be really precise on what the team wants. Everyone goes through that. It is very important to get the focus to back to what the team wants. Only then you will see the individuals who are so focused on what the team wants at that time, doing something special in a tough situation and bail the team out. When you win Test matches, you see such performances. But it is about remembering them, what we did right, why we won a Test match. It is not about forgetting a victory and just enjoying it. It is about learning from victories as well, what we did right so that we can repeat it. And, that’s consistency. We need to get more consistent as a team."

On lower-order batting being a concern...

"We still understand that at the top, it can get difficult, where guys are bowling a good spell and it’s really tough. Relatively easier for the middle order. But again, the lower-order contributions are crucial. As we saw in England, their lower-order contributions were much better than ours and that was the difference in the series. That’s where we want guys to be fearless. Actually, that’s the best place to bat where an all-rounder, who can bowl as well, has literally no pressure. If they get going, they can change the whole course of the game or the course of a whole series. That’s something we need to tighten up, especially after England. It’s something we are looking forward to – as a whole batting unit from top to bottom – to bat well together, not necessarily look for individual performances but bat well together to achieve a certain total every game."

On batting that promised much but not delivered...

"If we look at the England tour – apart from the game at Lord’s – there was no other game where we got bowled out as such, dominated totally, where we got bundled out in one session totally. I think they batted well in patches. But what happens is when you have a situation or a phase where you don’t bat so well as a team and you lose the game, that can really dent you mentally. The challenge is how to get up from that because when we play away from home, those things are going to happen. Any side that is playing in their conditions is not going to come and let you dominate the game. So we have to understand firstly how to control that situation better. Secondly, if that happens, we have to understand how to refresh and focus on the next match as a new game, rather than letting it build on or pile on. That has happened to me in the past, that can be a massive factor where people start thinking about the last innings or the innings before that or thinking of that as three innings in a tour rather than just focusing on a new innings which is for the team – a new session, a new hour, a new over, a new ball. You have to keep breaking it down. That’s something again we’ve discussed with the whole batting group – how to focus on staying in the present and that is something that has personally worked for me."