World Cup 2019: Kohli feels the mega event will be most challenging one

India captain Virat Kohli had a dream debut in the cricket World Cup as he slammed an unbeaten 100 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in the ‘grudge game’ of 2011. He went on to become the member of a World Cup-winning team in his very first attempt and then in 2015, he was a key member of the Indian batting in the showpiece event Down Under. Kohli is now set to appear in his third World Cup and this time, he will be the captain of the side.

The 30-year-old ace batter will also be his side’s biggest trump card in this tournament and Kohli admits that the third World Cup in his career will be the “most challenging” he has ever played because of its lengthy format.

India, along with other 10 teams in fray, will play each other nine times with the top four point-earners advancing to the semi-finals. The round-robin format was also used in the 1992 World Cup though there were nine teams competing for the trophy that year.

“Personally, I feel it is probably the most challenging World Cup of all the three that I have been a part of because of the format,” Kohli told the media ahead of the team’s departure on Tuesday.

Kohli emphasized that Team India will give their 100%

Kohli raised the example of Afghanistan to say that teams have grown from strength to strength and anybody can beat anybody on their day. “If you look at Afghanistan from 2015 to now, they are a completely different side. Any team can upset anyone on their day. That’s one thing we have in mind,” he said.

Kohli stressed that India will be eyeing to play on its strength. He said if the team can live up to its expectations and standards that it has set for themselves, Team India will be “on the right side of the results more often”.

The Indian team will leave for the UK in the early hours of Wednesday and play New Zealand in their first warm-up match on May 25.
India will kick off their campaign on June 5 when they will take on South Africa in Southampton.

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