DUBAI: India skipper Virat Kohli on Saturday said that the batting lineup needs to be motivated to counter Trent Boult's pace and swing in the T20 World Cup game against New Zealand.
India and New Zealand will lock horns against each other in the Super 12 stages of the World Cup on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Both sides will enter the contest after suffering a loss against Pakistan.
"We obviously will come up against some quality bowlers in this competition and the intensity which this tournament operates at is very different. So we know that we have played against these individuals, it is not something out of the ordinary that is going to come our way. It all depends on how we take the field mentally and how we counter it if Trent says he wants to replicate what Shaheen did against us then he is motivated to do so and we need to be motivated to put pressure on him and counter that," said Kohli while replying to an ANI query during a virtual pre-match press conference.
"That is how the game goes, we understand what we need to do. Not thinking about other scenarios is the key to batting in pressure situations," he added.
Talking about the form of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kohli said: "I do not want to single out any individual. As a bowling group, we failed to take wickets and we understand that can happen in the sport. It is not a guarantee that every time you take the field, you would not be able to pick a wicket. These are the same guys who have done the job for us, we understand where it went wrong against Pakistan."
"We were outplayed and you need to accept that as a professional cricket team, without any excuses and we will give no excuses going ahead. I am going to single out any individual, we lost as a team," he added.
The Men in Blue skipper also admitted that the toss is becoming a big factor in the ongoing World Cup.
"Yeah, it will continue to be a big factor and that is the nature of the tournament. You can look at the situation in two ways, you can bank too much on the toss and you can challenge yourselves as a team that even if you lose the toss, you are good enough to bowl or bat at any situation. Two-three overs can change the course of the game, for us, our only focus is how those eleven individuals are placed mentally," said Kohli.
"It has been a long break for us, we have waited a long time and we are just itching to go out on the park," he added.
Talking about the dependency on Jasprit Bumrah, Kohli said: "Jasprit is the best all format bowler in the world, precisely the reason why there is so much expectation from him. He takes a lot of pride on that, we are not bothered about how much expectation he takes, on the outside it does not matter. All the bowlers were are confident are good enough to take wickets," said Kohli.