Suspense is over. It is now confirmed that Virat Kohli will captain team India as regular skipper MS Dhoni is set to miss the first Test against Australia, at Adelaide beginning Tuesday, due to a sustained thumb injury. MS Dhoni did, however, bat and bowled at the training session on Sunday, but, as per reports by team management, man from Ranchi is not yet ready to resume wicket-keeping and handle rigours of a Test match.
Virat Kohli, in a pre-match press conference, made it official on Monday early morning the he will call the toss on Tuesday.
“Yes, I will be leading tomorrow,” Kohli, who will assume India’s Test captaincy for the first time , said. “We expect (Dhoni) to be 100 per cent fit in the next few days, we want him to be 100 per cent before he plays a game.”
Moreover, Delhi lad also expressed confidence in his captaincy skills, and stood behind his fast bowlers to state that they will cause Australia’s batsmen trouble in the series. He said: “This one of the best bowling attacks we’ve had in a while, (We have) guys who are bowling with pace and they’re fit.”
When queried regarding Mitchell Johnson, who wrecked havoc picking up 37 wickets in the last Ashes, Kohli evaded the question instead of mudslinging saying his side will not focus on one man.
“We’re not giving it too much importance,” he deflected. “There’s nothing very special about a particular individual or a few individuals.”
Kohli, earlier last week, attended Phillip Hughes’s funeral and stated that the Aussie batsman’s death has hit his team hard. In the same breath he also said that they had found a way to quickly focus on training.
“You have to move on with the game and we don’t want to be in a position where we’re lacking in preparation going into the first Test,” Kohli concluded.
Earlier onn Sunday, India’s in-form bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar was ruled out first Test.