Pune : Virat Kohli on Wednesday said it was too early to pass a judgment on his captaincy but insisted he has become a better batsman after assuming the leadership role since captaincy does not leave any room for complacency.
Kohli maintained that captain was only as good as his team, refusing a verdict on his leadership.
“I don’t judge myself after every series. Priority and the only goal that we have is to win games of cricket. Captaincy will be as good as how your team performs and how consistent the players are. If we are not playing to our potential as players, there’s not much I can do as captain.
“The more the team becomes mature, the captain starts looking good. If the team doesn’t do well, the captaincy bit seems out of control,” Kohli said on the eve of series-opener against Australia.
“Maybe five to eight years down the line I will be able to judge myself as a captain if I remain captain for that long. I feel personally it’s too early for me to sit down and judge what I have done well or haven’t,” he said.
Kohli, who has enjoyed a phenomenal run in recent past both as a batsman and captain, said when you are leader of the side batting becomes a more serious job.
Kohli said it hold true for his Australian counterpart Steve Smith as well.
“Captaincy requires you to be on point throughout the game that’s one thing which has worked well for me and I think Steve Smith as well. He is the no. 1 Test player in the world and there’s a reason for that. I can’t pinpoint any similarities in our career.”
The young Indian batsman said he hardly thinks about others’ opinion about him even as he is quite comfortable in his skin now.
“I focus on my game and that’s the priority for me,” he said when asked about how he handled the pressure of being in the spotlight all the time.
The Indian team is approaching the four-Test series against Australia with a more settled frame of mind than against England, said Kohli.
“England was a very tough series. We started off (home season) with a draw which we managed and which was not a convincing draw from our side. It was more of not letting the opposition win and from there on we turned things around.
“That took a lot of character and the team is in a different mind, space ever since that first game in Rajkot. The mindset has been different,” said Kohli.
He expected the track prepared for the game at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s stadium as dry.
“Even in the one-day games that we have played here, the surface was dry underneath. It had a decent covering of grass which you need to keep for the surface to hold itself together. This time of the year when the summer comes in the wicket tends to get slower and lower. So that’s what we expect from this wicket as well.
“We expect it to turn from day two, day three. It’s very difficult to keep the wicket together. We understand exactly how the wicket’s going to play.”
He said the Indian pace bowlers were now comfortable with a more restrictive role they have been given to play.
He described Mitchell Starc, the Aussie pace spearhead, as a world class bowler.
“He has been hampered by injuries quite often. I have played with him in IPL, I have faced him in my first tour to Australia. From then to now it’s a massive change.
“He has learnt the art of reverse swing and bowling with the old ball as well is amazing to see, the way he has developed his skills. That’s something that every cricketer in the world would admire. He has really taken his game to the next level and that’s why he is counted among the top bowlers in world cricket and deserves to be there.” -PTI
