Riverside (Chester-Le-Street), Sep 2: India might have suffered a humiliating 0-4 loss in Tests but Virat Kohli today said there was no embarrassment in the defeat against England and his team would now be able to play without pressure in the One-day series starting tomorrow.
“There is no embarrassment. We didn't play good cricket and were beaten fair and square. If you play so much, this kind of phase happens. How you come back and fight is important. We are working hard and trying to turn things around,” Kohli said.
“If it was before the tour began, there would have been pressure on us (to live up to world champions status). Now considering how the tour has gone, it's up to us to just focus on cricket and not anything else,” he added.
The 22-year-old middle-order batsman said youngsters in the team had enough time to prepare for the One-day series and they would try to give their best in the rest of the tour.
“There are fresh faces with the mindset to do well and have had time to prepare. We would hopefully try and win it,” said Kohli, who has scored 2153 runs from 59 matches at an average of 43.94 for India.
“We need to be tight and have strong bonding and leave out everything else. That's how we did well in World Cup. Just be together and not worry about anything else. I can feel in Indian dressing room that bonding is still there,” he added.
The Delhi batsman believed it would be important for his side's batsmen to take up the responsibility and try and win matches single-handedly.
“The challenge is tough. They are really a good side. We have to take the responsibility in the middle order. Most of us would like to bat through 20-25 overs.
“We would all like to take up responsibility. You need to have the belief you can win the game single handedly. If we go with that mindset, we would put up strong challenge and compete,” Kohli said. PTI
