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India batting great Virat Kohli turned 34 on Saturday. The birthday boy has been in sparkling form in the ongoing T20 World Cup, giving nightmares to captains of opposition teams. Zimbabwe skipper Craig Ervine, whose side will face the Indian cricket team in an important Group 2 clash in Melbourne on Sunday, floored everyone with his response to a question on Virat Kohli's birthday and whether his side has made any plans to stop the run machine from making a big score against them.
While Craig Ervine acknowledged that his bowlers were relishing the challenge of bowling against Virat Kohli, they know that he's just too good with the bat and that's why they have not come up with any kind of plan to get him out.
“Yeah, definitely. This is a great opportunity to bowl against some of the best guys in the world, so there's no reason why guys would not want to actually get out there and produce the goods. How often do you get the opportunity to put Virat Kohli in your pocket? I'm pretty sure that our fast bowlers will be raring to go come tomorrow,” Craig Ervine said on the eve of his side's clash with India.
“Glad that Virat Kohli's birthday is today not tomorrow. I don't think we have any plans against Virat. I think he's just too good a player. But look, I think a lot of the guys you can dissect so many different theories, and at the end of the day, if you come out and hit a good area, use your change-ups, all those sorts of things, I don't think that special plans really work for these guys because they're so good at adapting to different conditions and different situations,” The Zimbabwe skipper added.
“Well, I think there are a few areas that we'd like to improve on. I think one is especially the fielding over the last couple of games I think has let us down quite a bit. Also the powerplay, I think we've struggled a little bit on the powerplay. We've lost a lot of early wickets and it puts quite a bit of pressure on the middle order,” Craig Ervine elaborated.
“I think losing those wickets in clusters has been our Achilles heel in the batting department, and then in the fielding department, it's mainly been our dropped catches and missed fields we need to tidy up on,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) posted a video of a conversation on its website, in which Virat Kohli can be seen speaking about Team India's campaign in the T20 World Cup.
“Everybody is confident and prepared and it is all about how you handle pressure on the given day. You try and lead the way in big matches, try and make an impact for the others to relax,” Virat Kohli said in a video shared by the Indian cricket board.
Asked about his relationship with India captain Rohit Sharma has changed since he took over the leadership of the side from him earlier this year.
Article Continues Below“Our vision has been always been similar, always to make India win. Now the thing is that, the conversation is back and forth, the inputs that I can give him, or the things that he needs to ask me, it is quite free flowing. It is always pointed towards – main goal and the team has tuned into it. That environment is very difficult to explain,” Virat Kohli added.
“When I come here (in Australia), it doesn't feel alien anymore to me. I get a very comfortable feeling here. When you perform here, you get that respect. I realise it now, it is not just about our fans but when I step out on road, the locals here meet and approach me and I feel happy to see them,” Virat Kohli revealed.
Coming back to Virat Kohli’s performance with the bat in this edition of the T20 World, he’s currently the top-scorer in the tournament, having made 220 runs, including three half-centuries in India’s four matches.
Coming back to Virat Kohli’s performance with the bat in this edition of the T20 World, he’s currently the top-scorer in the tournament, having made 220 runs, including three half-centuries in India’s four matches.
Against Bangladesh, Virat Kohli even went past Sri Lankan great Mahela Jayawardena’s record to become the leading run-getter in ICC T20 World Cup history. The former India captain now has 1065 runs in 23 innings in the world's best T20I tourney.
His unbeaten 82-run-knock against Pakistan has been widely rated as the greatest T20 innings of all time by several former cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and Ravi Shastri.
Former Australian skipper and ex-India coach Greg Chappell even went on to describe his knock as a “song by God”.
