Confident Kohli Ready For The Tough England Challenge

Not every time when a sub-continent team play in overseas conditions and start the series with a slight advantage. India, the No.1 Test side in the world will look to capitalize on England's recent struggles in the longest format of the game.

However, the things won't be easy for India as their past record isn't good in English conditions. Their last two series in England in 2011 and 2014 weren't something that India can proud. They lost both the series with 4-0 and 3-1 respectively.



But this time around, things could be different as conditions are very much favorable for India. In this season of summer when the pitches are usually dry, Indian team is must be feeling like home. They will be thinking that this is their best chance to win the series in England also knowing that England is not in the best of form in this format.

This is a long series where things can change quickly. India's skipper Virat Kohli while speaking in a pre-match press conference also believes that long series gives opportunities to turn the things around and said that this is something that they are looking forward to.

"The fact this is a long series is something we are looking forward to. It gives you a lot of opportunities during the course of the whole series," Kohli said. "There are two ways to think about this - either it's too long a series to play or think there are so many opportunities to come up every session, every Test match. We are definitely in a good frame of mind. It's a young team who have played a lot of matches. It's a very rare combination to find. We are comfortable with where we stand as a team and we are pretty confident of our abilities. We have to the skill sets, character and mental toughness which is required to compete and win in overseas conditions," Kohli said



Despite been confident, Kohli stressed the need to stay mentally fresh and focussed throughout the next six weeks. Point to be noted that this is the same thing Ajinkya Rahane had said a day before.

"This is a five-match series and not a two or three-match series where if things go wrong in one match, desperation sinks in. In such a long series, you can be patient enough to turn things around. From that point of view, all of us are relaxed. Bowling, batting and even in terms of fielding, everyone is in a good space now."

"You need to make sure that all the players and the management are on the same page. Especially when you have a long series and you know it's going to be challenging, you cannot afford to have individuals who are drifting away with their mindset. We keep speaking about it regularly. It's a small thing that changes the mindset. When you take an adverse situation as an opportunity than something to be feared of, it totally changes the mindset. That's constantly what we speak about. And to understand that, the challenge comes in when the situation is not going your way...that's when composure comes in," Kohli added.



Long series' are always been beneficial. It does not only provide opportunities to fight back but also gives the option to try different combinations. India will really look to take an advantage of this as they are looking to use Kuldeep Yadav. If this happens then anyone from Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja could have sit on the bench. The same can happen with Pujara and Dhawan (at least for one or two games) as they didn't look in best of their touch in the warm-up game.

"You always come up with situations when you're playing such long seasons that you have scenarios. Along with the management, you have to sit down and take a call. It all boils down to your gut feeling. If five people on the table agree that this is the right thing to do for the team, then we go ahead with that, there are no ifs and buts. There's no looking back. If we take a decision today we're not going to sit down tomorrow and say, 'Oh we could have done that.' We don't act like that.

"That's why we've been pushing forward as a team. We've not held on to decisions we've made. Once we've made them we don't look back at them, even if they come off or not. They're taken in the best interests of the team at that particular time; there are total honesty and total ownership all around the squad. That's the mindset behind it. In Test cricket what matters is the balance of the squad: that's the most crucial thing," Kohli said.

Apart from the team's success, Virat Kohli will want to improve his record in English conditions. Last time when India toured England, Kohli struggled throughout the 5-match series. In 10 innings he only managed to score 133 with an average of below 15. But since then, he has been in fine touch. He will be hoping to things turn around for him this time.

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