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| Rohit Sharma |
Canberra: Virat Kohli doesn’t see any competition with compatriot Rohit Sharma during the ongoing Australian tour, or in near future, as he has little doubt that both would be serving the Indian team in the days to come.
The two steadied India’s innings with an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 78 as they progressed to 162 for four in their three-day warm-up match against CA Chairman’s XI, here, on Monday.
“We know in future we are going to play for the team so I don’t see any competition.
“It’s just a matter of who gets to play when, who gets into that zone and start scoring runs,” Kohli said after his unbeaten 55 at the Manuka Oval in the run-up to the four-match Test series starting December 26.
“People ask me this question. There is always competition for a particular spot in the team. You’ve 2-3 good players waiting to grab the chance.”
While Kohli’s consistency over the past one year has helped him stake claim for the No. 6 spot, Rohit, after his brilliant batting display against the West Indies recently, is giving the Delhi lad competition.
“We (Rohit and himself) have had some good stands together. It’s good for Indian cricket… In future when the situation arises, then we have a better understanding. It’s a healthy competition and it’s good for the team.”
Kohli, who batted ahead of Rohit at No.4 on Monday, termed his knock as useful in view of the upcoming Test series.
“It was good to get a knock out there. Especially going up the order was much better.
“It was a practice game and you needed good work-out against seam bowlers as well, and then there were spinners. Going in pretty early when the ball was reasonably new was a help. When the ball gets old on this kind of wicket, it becomes batting paradise.
“Even in nets, we try to use new balls as much as we can since old Kookaburra balls come on to the bat very nicely. Ball doing a bit can really prepare you well.”
Kohli has a feeling that the Australian batsmen would have to work hard to come to terms with the Indian bowling.
“We have bowlers who can bowl quick like Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav and then we have guys like Zaheer Khan, Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun who can swing it.
“They can bowl consistently in the right area and use up pace as well. So they (Australians) would have to work hard against us to score runs against in the series.”
Australian cricket is going through a transitional phase after the retirements of some of the biggest names in world cricket.
“They have new players. You can’t probably compare their skills with the team which dominated previously. It always takes time for youngsters to settle down.”
Kohli, however, had no doubt that the Aussies would be still be overtly aggressive against the Indians.
“You can’t change their aggressive mindset. We know they would try their level best. It would be a well-competed series. We can’t take them lightly since they still have good bowlers and batsmen in the side who can turn the game around.”
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