#INDvAUS: Virat Kohli steps up his verbal game, smashes Steve Smith and an Aussie scribe out of the park – Virat Kohli is the last one who would get intimidated by Australia’s mind games.
Virat Kohli (AFP)
An India-Australia series without a dose of verbal exchanges between the camps, is as boring as a five-day long drawn Test. While the Australians were surprisingly silent before the start of the series, one win has changed the scenario and the mind games have begun. Steve Smith had taken the first shot and today was Virat Kohli’s occasion to step up to the plate.
In the pre match press conference leading up to the second Test in Bengaluru, an Australian scribe pointed out to Kohli that Smith had suggested that India would be under some pressure given the fact that the visitors won the first Test even after being the underdogs.
“Do you feel any added pressure going into this game?” questioned the journalist.
“Me?” replied Kohli.
“No as a team?” the journalist reframed his question.
“Does it look like? I am pretty relaxed, I am happy, I am smiling. It’s fine, it’s his views. It’s the way he wants to say,” pat comes Kohli’s reply.
The journalist then asked whether they would prepare differently for Steve O’Keefe who grabbed 12 wickets in the Pune Test and rocked the Indian batting order.
Kohli stepped up a gear and went on to say, “I don’t think there would be any extra variations added to his bowling. He is the bowler he is and we have to accept that and play to the best that we can. That’s what we are looking at. We are trying to focus on our skills more than what Australia is saying or preparing like. I know these mind games, these press conferences are something they are very good at. We are still going to play the same brand of cricket that we have played in the last two years and see how the series ends after the four matches.”
