A selfless Virat Kohli spoke ahead of the India-Australia first ODI at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Kohli had no qualms in demoting himself and building a team that would accommodate all three openers in Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul
Mumbai: India and Australia are set to resume rivalry at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. The three-ODI series begins tomorrow (January 14) and captain Virat Kohli has once again put team above self.
With three openers Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul being part of the Indian squad, Kohli hinted that all three may feature in the playing XI and he might vacate his number three spot.
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If Rohit, Shikhar and Rahul play against Australia, then Kohli will move down the order to number four. "Look, a guy in form is always good for the team. ...You obviously want to have the best players available and then chose from what the combination should be for the team. There might be a possibility that all three (Rohit, Shikhar and Rahul) might play. It will be interesting to see what balance we want to take in on the field," Kohli said on the eve of the first ODI.
Kohli was asked about demoting himself and he said he had no problems about it. “Big possibility (of coming down the order), very happy. Look, I am not possessive about where I play. I am not insecure about where I bat,” declared Kohli on Monday (January 13).
He continued, “Being the captain it is my job to make sure the next lot is also ready as well. A lot of other people might not look at it that way. But, your job as a captain is not only to look after the team right now but to also prepare a team that you can leave behind when you eventually pass it on to someone else. These are the times when you need to be aware that you.”
“The vision always has to be on the larger picture and figure out how you can make these guys confident. It all someone has to take responsibility, it has to be me, and give other guys opportunities as well. So, I am very open to it,” the Delhi right-hander added.
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav.
Australia
Aaron Finch (captain), Alex Carey (vice-captain, wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (vice-captain), Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
(All matches start at 1.30 pm IST)
January 14 (Tuesday): 1st ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
January 17 (Friday): 2nd ODI, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
January 19 (Sunday): 3rd ODI, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
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