I love Virat's aggression: Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli, are the two personalities who now shoulder the responsibility of taking Indian cricket ahead. One a legend who played his part for the country with the ball for 18 years and is back to lead a bunch of young cricketers who have tons of talent, loads of aspirations and a billion hopes. The other, a 27-year old aggressive, passionate and hungry cricketer who doesn’t want to settle for anything but victory for his team when on the cricket field. Though these two personalities sound contrasting but have one thing in common. Whenever they set their feet on the ground the only objective they have had is to win.

Virat is looked at as a very aggressive individual since he wears it on his sleeves and doesn’t just believe in replying with his bat but does that on the face as well. Kumble on the other hand had a more conventional approach and dashed out his response with the ball. The duo are all set for their first campaign together as team India flies to the Caribbean for a 4-Test series. At the pre-tour press meet Kumble was asked how he would deal with the aggression and temperament of Kohli on and off the field. The coach with a grin on his face said, “I love his aggression,”

Kohli who was sitting right next to him nodded as the coach went on to add, “I was no different, I was also aggressive – very different in terms of how we probably came across on the field. But you know, you don’t want to curb [that aggression]. I’ll be the last person to curb someone’s natural instincts. But of course, we all know how important it is to be the ambassadors of India and be a part of the Indian cricket team. That everybody in the team understands. There is a thin line, everybody knows that, we will ensure [that we don’t cross that line]. I won’t certainly curb anyone’s instincts.”

“As a coach, all you want is to prepare them to the best of your ability and make sure all areas are covered, skill-wise, fitness-wise, strategy-wise, and prepare them so that they are able to go out there and assess any situation on their own,” said Kumble.

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“The good part is that we are playing a lot of Tests this year. So we will be able to assess the shortcomings, if at all, and plug those. There are 17 Test matches and we will ensure that we are consistent, whether it is the West Indies or back here playing New Zealand, England and Australia. You don’t go into the match thinking that you can’t win. Your thinking is to win the match from any situation, and that is the positivity that we will look to bring in.”

The Indian head coach added that they are expected to win and it’s going to be there but Jason Holder & Co. will challenge them. “The expectation to win is constantly going to be there for the Indian team. It’s always going to be there, it’s not going to change,”

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“West Indies are a tough side at home, they know the conditions there. Yes, obviously, they are in a transition phase and there will be some young West Indian players playing Test cricket. Like you mentioned, we are expected to win but the conditions are similar to what we get here at home. We still have two weeks before the first Test, we have a couple of practice games at St Kitts, so we will try out various combinations and everyone an opportunity to have a knock in those two matches and decide what’s the ideal combination for us to go with. Only a few of them have played in the West Indies, the others have played in the shorter formats not necessarily in Tests, but the experience is there. And having played there before, it’s no different. It’s all about Test cricket and how you win sessions. That’s going to be the motivation, instead of looking at the opposition. One thing that we would like to drive as a team is to look at our own selves and improve constantly.” Kumble added.

Test matches are more result oriented these days and even the hosts are cautious of dishing out a wicket that obtains a result. Anil Kumble thinks it is because the approach of the modern-day approach that we see this change. “Everybody is now positive and they want a result from a match. And probably because of modern-day batting technique and mindset of batsmen to go after the bowlers, you see a run-rate of more than four runs in every innings in a Test match. So that’s one of the reasons.”