After India’s comprehensive nine-wicket win (by Duckworth/Lewis Method) over Australia in the first Twenty20 International on Saturday, Virat Kohli attributed the team’s recent success to the team management’s decision to pick format-specific players.
The call to persist with wrist spinners like Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the limited overs format, as opposed to seniors R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, has proved to be beneficial for the team since the start of the Sri Lanka series.
“It has not only been a combined effort of the players but also the management group, which has given great ideas. Picking specialist players for formats, picking mystery bowlers [Kuldeep], giving them confidence. They can give runs in one game, but they will always hit back,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony in Ranchi.
Kohli also praised his new ball bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah for giving India the perfect start.
“Bhuvi and Bumrah have been brilliant in limited-overs lately. You need to be able to execute yorkers and slower balls and you need the skill. But you need to have a good head as well, make batsmen hit the wrong areas.”
However, despite the easy win, Kohli admitted that they didn’t really understand how the revised score in the rain-hit T20 was 48 in six overs after restricting Australia to 118.
“We don’t really understand the Duckworth Lewis method. After getting them down to 118, we thought it would only be 40 or something. 48 was tricky,” Kohli said.
Yadav, who won the Man of the Match award for his 2/26, spoke about how he planned his wickets, especially that of Aaron Finch.
“The first couple of balls, I saw what he was doing, later on I set him up for the sweep shot. So I knew he wasn’t going to hit me over mid-off, so I planned that overpitched ball to bowl him,” Yadav said
“I always think about getting wickets and that’s all that matters for me and the team. Getting more confidence day by day, game by game,” he added.