MUMBAI: A lot of things about the current India team are about aggression and looking the opposition in the eye. This bunch doesn’t mince words or mind confrontations, within permissible limits. If Virat Kohli is to be believed, you can add a form of ‘this for that’ to the list.
The India captain is not happy that the England team is taking a three-week break between the Test and ODI series, to go home for Christmas. The visitors had done the same on their previous tour of India in 2012-13 and also in 2001-02, the last two times they were here for Tests and ODIs this time of the year.
It started when an Indian scribe asked the captain at Wednesday’s pre-match media interaction about the eight-day gap between the third and fourth Tests. The three-week Christmas break wasn’t mentioned initially. It was after Kohli spoke about it briefly that an English journalist asked what he really thinks. “We should also come back from England, when we go there. We were there for three and-a-half months, everything we do is in the eyes of the media. Even our off time is scanned. I would like to see the same happen when we travel. Either they stay back for the whole tour, or we come back for 25 days as well,” said Kohli.
After the fifth and last Test in Chennai on December 20, the limited-over leg begins with an ODI in Pune on January 15. While this is a practice the England team follows when they travel around this time, no other side takes a break and comes back to complete a series. For the record, India’s tour of England in 2014, featuring five Tests, five ODIs and a T20, was from July to September.
Before Kohli, no other India captain or player had said on record that breaks should be applicable to both sides. This is something the two boards decide rather than players, although their inputs are taken. It remains to be seen if the BCCI finds merit in Kohli’s logic and gives it a thought.