India pacer Arshdeep Singh thinks that having talismanic Virat Kohli in the dressing room is a “blessing” and that he won’t take too much notice of the batting mainstay’s eight-ball duck in the opening ODI, which the visitors lost to Australia by seven wickets.
Being a master in 50-over cricket, Arshdeep believes that Kohli will score runs in the series’ final two games.
“He has played more than 300 matches for India, so form is just a word for him,” Arshdeep said at the post-match media conference.
“He knows how to get going. It is always like a blessing to be in the same dressing room with him, and going forward I feel there’ll be a lot of runs for him in this series as well.”
Arshdeep remained defensive when asked about Kohli’s thoughts on playing only one format.
“….talking about the format he is playing, he has mastered this one. So I don’t know how he feels about it. I will ask him about his feelings, and maybe tell you in the next press conference.”
Although the left-arm seamer is still relatively new to Shubman Gill’s white ball captaincy style, he anticipates that the young captain will be a bowlers’ captain, much like his legendary predecessors Rohit Sharma and Kohli.
This was Gill’s first game as ODI captain, and Arshdeep hasn’t played Test cricket yet, so the left-arm speedster didn’t want to compare the new captain’s perspective on the game to that of the two elder statesmen.
“I have played very less ODIs, so I can’t tell the difference yet, but I would say both of them were proper bowlers’ captains.”
“They gave you proper freedom and even today Shubman, he backed whatever plans we had, and he said, bowl freely to your plans and just enjoy the moment,” Arshdeep said about his state-mate with whom he has shared the dressing room since their age-group days.
“We knew we didn’t have that many runs, but we just wanted to express ourselves, that was his message.”
According to Arshdeep, the track at Optus Stadium was good, and the batters’ focus was hampered by the numerous rain breaks.
“If you spend time on this wicket, then the runs were coming, but it was very important to spend time on the wicket whoever was set. We saw the partnership between KL and Axar,” he said citing an example.
“But with frequent stoppages, it became very difficult for the batter to maintain concentration. And the credit also goes to Australian bowlers. They bowled in very good areas, they got a lot of help from the wicket,” he added.
