India vs Australia: Virat Kohli Says He Was "Immature" To Get Into On-Field Spats

Barely days ahead of India's tour of Australia, which starts on November 21 with a three-match T20I series, India captain Virat Kohli threw light on India's preparations and expectations from the upcoming tour during a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. While speaking on on-field arguments and spats, which certainly are a possibility while playing Down Under, Virat Kohli admitted that he was once "immature" to feed on altercations and on-field fights to get "pumped up" to keep his "focus" precise.

"Those were very immature things that I used to feed on in the early days of my career so that I could get pumped up and don't necessarily feel all that pressure and the focus is precise," he said.

Kohli elaborated on the fact that things have now changed after taking the responsibilities from MS Dhoni as captain of India. "Now being captain of the team, you literally have no room for anything else but think of what the team wants all the time. So there's no need for these things at all.

"When it comes to getting engaged in an argument, or a fight, as people like to call it excitedly, I have been completely okay with playing without an altercation. At a personal level, I don't need to find these things anymore. I have enough belief in my abilities that I can play without a reason to pump myself up," said Kohli.

Talking about how India have never been the ones to provoke the opposition team, and egg them on into a spat, he said, "We were always the ones giving it back. We were never the ones starting anything. So as long as it doesn't start, we don't have a problem in focussing on our game and just doing what we need to do.

"We don't necessarily need to go and look out for something. If they want to play a certain way, we will reciprocate in that way. That's how the game of cricket works. In our own mind, we have to keep it competitive and don't let our energies drop. That will be our main focus."

After a three-match T20I series, India and Australia square off in a four-match Test series, which will be followed by a three-match ODI series.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Virat Kohli Ravi Shastri Australia vs India 2018/19 Cricket