'With Virat it is a funny one, we love to hate him but we also love to watch him bat as cricket fans. He certainly is polarising in that type of scenario. We love watching him bat, but we don't like seeing him score too many runs'
For Kohli, in probably his last three matches as T20 captain of India, one would expect some prudent team selections and it starts with the question of repeatedly ignoring a player of Ashwin's calibre.
Images from the IPL match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, in Mumbai, on Thursday.
India's spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin (887 points) and Ravindra Jadeja (879 points) held onto the top two slots in the latest ICC's Test ranking for bowlers while skipper Virat Kohli was a rung behind Steve Smith in the batsmen's list.
Stand-in skipper Virat Kohli led from the front with an unbeaten 88 as Delhi spanked Saurashtra by eight wickets to pocket five points from their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match at home on Friday. Chasing 160, the hosts cruised to 161 for 2 in 32 overs, with Kohli and Mithun Manhas (23) guiding them to victory.
He said that she guides him in the right direction.
The COVID-19 setback firmly behind him, Royal Challengers Bangalore opener Devdutt Padikkal says he is now ready to fire with the bat in IPL 2021 and feels confident of replicating his stupendous domestic form in the T20 league.
The 25-year-old Yadav, who now has 99 ODI wickets, ended the match with the figures of 3-52.
It would be interesting to see who India leave out to play Rohit Sharma
"Stunning day at the beach with the boys," Kohli posted
MS Dhoni in his career usually batted lower down the order and was more of a finisher.
All the Indian batsmen and bowlers will get a look in and skipper Virat Kohli is expected to decide his best possible combination for the playing eleven for the first Test depending on their performances in the coming two days.
A charity football match was played to raise funds for the severe drought in Maharashtra.
Kohli didn't name anyone but expressed his displeasure at some of the players not showing enough intent to score runs
India batsman Shreyas Iyer is hoping that his 71-run knock in the second ODI against the West Indies will help him keep his place in the team.
Indians dominated the limited-over teams by having three and four players in the ODI and T20I respectively
Having released 10 players ahead of the auction, the team management focussed on strengthening the batting and pace bowling units.
In the bowlers' list, Bumrah is sitting at the top with 774 points.
Becomes second-fastest batsman to register 25 Test centuries
Skipper Virat Kohli had put in a lot of emphasis on workload management before the IPL last year. It has been learnt that the national selectors will sit down and take a call after checking the workload and medical database of all centrally contracted players.
Images from the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals, in Bengaluru, on Sunday.
Jadeja, who suffered a concussion during the first T20 international, also sustained a hamstring injury which ruled him out of the first Test.
The former left-arm speedster also felt that the hundred struck by K L Rahul in the last and the fifth Test against England last week will bolster his confidence in the continental showpiece event being held in the UAE.
The humiliation in Adelaide has opened up 'serious wounds' for India and Australia now have a good chance of inflicting on the visitors a whitewash in the four-Test series, reckons former captain Ricky Ponting.
'There is no comfort zone at the international level, there is no comfort zone in training, there is no comfort zone in preparation. So, people who want to relate this to comfort zone should really have a reality check that it's pressure, not a comfort zone.'
'When I walked out, I felt like the IPL game atmosphere and you feel like smashing the first ball. But you have to remind yourself that you have to play compact.
The 30-year-old leg-spinner said watching Yuzvendra Chahal and Sundar bowl during RCB's thumping 82-run win over KKR a few days before helped him find the right length at the same small Sharjah ground.
"There's nothing to do with the pitch but both the teams bowled well. We did well in both spin and pace departments. But then it's part of the game. One day you do well and on another day nothing goes your way," Negi said at the post-match news conference on Sunday.
In case of Umesh, he bowls a fuller length, gets that lethal outswing going his way at 140 clicks but the question is, if India can afford to play a bowler, who has a propensity to bowl too many boundary balls.
'When you are playing cricket, you will have lean phases as a batsman, so you need to get through them, you need to keep working hard and keep getting your processes right, and as a support staff we are helping them to do that.'
It will be a test of Virat Kohli's tactical acumen against the ice-cool demeanour of Eoin Morgan when perennial underachievers Royal Challengers Bangalore clash with former champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL Eliminator in Sharjah on Monday.
Neither does Shreyas Iyer wants to harp on the past nor is he keen to fret about what the future has in store for him. He just wants to "stay in the moment" and seize the day, as the illustrious Sunil Gavaskar advised him while giving the India cap.
Kohli said post-retirement of Zaheer Khan and other 'stalwarts', they were worried but now, looking at the current scenario, he could not be happier.
'I wish him all the best and a left-arm bowler is always an asset on the field and if he can be consistent it will be a great thing for us heading into the World Cup next year.'
While India had already won the three-match T20I series after winning the first two games, Australia won the last game to avoid a cleansweep.
Former Australian captain Ian Chappell believes India skipper Virat Kohli's penchant for playing copybook cricketing shots and his incredible fitness make him the world's best batsman across formats among the current generation of cricketers. Kohli, who has scored 70 international hundreds and more than 20,000 runs, averages more than 50 in all three formats.
Dhoni, who has won all cricketing accolades including captaining India to triumph at the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2007 T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy, will turn 38 on Sunday.
With 871 rating points, Virat Kohli is at the top followed by Rohit (855) and Pakistan's Babar Azam (829).
Shreyas Iyer says India does not need to step away from the new batting philosophy that skipper Virat Kohli spoke about following the team's eight-wicket loss to England in the first T20I, in Ahmedabad, on Friday.
India skipper Virat Kohli and comeback man Gautam Gambhir seem to have moved on from their bitter Indian Premier League spat as the Delhi duo was seen sharing a few light moments on the eve of the second cricket Test against New Zealand.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances