Hardik Pandya Gives Us Balance: Virat Kohli

Jan 9, 2019 at 4:10 PM

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Hardik Pandya Gives Us Balance: Virat Kohli

It could have been a whitewash of England in the three-match ODI series but regular wickets and some unnecessary shots from, otherwise responsible, Indian batsmen deprived home team and skipper Virat Kohli a chance to clean sweep the visitors.

Still, India won the series by a margin of 2-1 having won the first two games of the series.

It was the first series for Virat Kohli after as full-time skipper. The series though was quite fruitful for the home team but once again the opening batting flaws of Indian team were exposed, this time by England bowlers.

There were many positives and negatives from the series and taking few positives from the series, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, during the past match press conference said,

 

“The lesson that I learned was, I want to say lesson but positives. I was very pleased to see Kedar bat like he did, very pleased to see Hardik perform with bat and the ball, very pleased to see Yuvi and Mahi bat together again and steering that big partnership. So I think a lot of positive for us as a team. Even Bhuvi with the ball in the second game, you know to win the game for us, to pull it back was outstanding when it was difficult to grip the ball and even today the partnership was outstanding between Kedar and Hardik after being 170 odd for five, with all experienced guys back. The way I think these young guys have shown character and have stuck it out whenever we have been under pressure. That for me, have been the standout from the series as a captain, the way the relatively newer guys have performed and the way MS and Yuvi have come back into their own.”

On speaking of the presence and advantage that team India gets having a fast bowling all-rounder like Hardik Pandya, Kohli said,

 

“It is very helpful, all the team around the world have a fast bowling all-rounder which gives them a lot of balance, allows you to play that extra batsman, I guess. Allows you to still play two spinners, two seamers and then if the guy is good enough, he does the job for you. I think he bowled really well in the first and the third game. Even today he picked up three wickets. He bowled really good areas. He was one of the few bowlers for us who was hitting the deck hard. He is getting more smarter and intelligent with more games that he plays. He brings great balance to the side, I must say.”

Both the teams scored a score in excess of 300 in all the three games and there were questions in the end that raised doubt over the quality of bowling.

Answering to this doubt, Kohli said

“We have chased them down twice. We have scored more than them twice and even today we were at closing distance of the target so if I sit down as a captain and expect teams to get out at 250, 260 then I am thinking totally opposite of how game is going nowadays because I think if teams are scoring 300+, you gotta make your mindset to go out there and score runs, score more them what you are capable of chasing.”

With the completion of the ODI series, the action now turns towards the shortest format of the game where the semi-finalists and finalists of T20 World Cup 2016 will lock horns.

The first T20I is scheduled to be played on January 26 at Kanpur where we will witness a new opening partner with KL Rahul and the comeback of Suresh Raina in the T20 squad.

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