Virat Kohli aims to put hosts New Zealand under pressure from ball one

After a series win against the Australians, Captain Virat Kohli is looking forward to dominating the Kiwis at their own backyard. He brings out a lot of positivity from last year’s series win against New Zealand and aims to put on the pressure against the home team from the word “go”.

Virat Kohli and Co. will play five T20s, three ODIs and two Tests in New Zealand. Last year, they had dominated the ODI series, defeating the World Cup runners-up by a scoreline of 4-1. But, the Kiwis had defeated Team India in the shortest format by a scoreline of 1-2.

After defeating a strong Australian side in the recently-concluded series, the Indian skipper said, “We are taking a lot of confidence from our performance last year. We were very positive in how we played, sure of what we wanted to do. The thing about playing away is if you can put the home team under pressure, you can enjoy your cricket”.

According to Kohli, the home side is in pressure as every home team needs to win at its own backyard. The Indian captain is very confident of his to replicate their last year’s dominance. As the team left for New Zealand on Monday night, Kohli pointed out some areas of improvement that the side needs to work on. “We want to bat well when we bat first and in case we’re defending a low total, we should be able to do that as well,” said Kohli as quoted by The Times of India.

Virat Kohli opines on losing the toss frequently

“We have taken the toss out of context, and we’re as prepared as possible to do something the opposition asks us to do,” Kohli said about his history on losing the toss. He did not win a single toss in the recently-concluded Australian series but his team was successful in avoiding the ‘toss’ factor in every game. He praised his team as they have been successful in playing expressive cricket to get the result they want.

After winning the series, Kohli explained why he likes to play against Australia. The Indian skipper cited that the Australians bring out the best of him. Youngster Shreyas Iyer received praise from the Indian skipper for his unbeaten 44-run knock as the Men in Blue clinched the third ODI easily on the back of sublime knocks from Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

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