Virat Kohli admits bowling at death overs a concern for India

India’s ‘Man of the Match’ in the first World T20 game against Afghanistan, Virat Kohli is not over-confident about his team’s chances in the mega event, and wants his teammates to learn a lesson even from an easy win.

The in-form batman was not reluctant to admit that while batting department is India’s biggest strength, his side’s bowling at the death overs is a ‘worrying factor’.

"I believe we could have done better as a bowling unit and won by a bigger margin. We could have bowled in better areas. I think our bowling in the initial overs has been pretty good but it is the bowling at the death that needs to improve," Kohli said after
the scrappy 23-run win on Wednesday.

The Men in Blue lost a couple of early wickets, but Kohli was there to fish his side out. The classy right-hander scored a magnificent half-century to take his side to a par total.

In reply, the Afghanis at one stage were in a great position to achieve the target, but lack of ability to add the finishing touch cost them badly. When asked whether he expected the minnows to put up the kind of fight they did, Kohli responded:

"That’s exactly what happens when you play a lower-ranked opposition. They do not have the fear of failure. They are not concerned about the match situations and little things. Normally, in these situations, you find players expressing themselves well and
doing the right things more often than not."

India’s next task is to get the better of defending champions England. Talking about Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag’s ongoing poor form, he described:

"Normally, when you hit a bad patch in the T20s, it tends to get stretched for a few matches but you need that one match to make a comeback. And in this format, a good start means 40-45 runs unlike ODIs where you need 85-90 run starts. I believe our openers
are experienced and soon they would get big scores."

He also voted against any changes in the batting line-up, adding, "I don’t think it’s a good idea. In T20s, you need a set batting line-up as far as the top three batsmen are concerned. The moment you start changing the combination and provided it doesn’t
work, it can have a negative effect. When it comes to bowling combination, you can still make some changes but not in batting."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Sep 20 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry