We need better scheduling: Kohli

Nagpur, November 23

This series has been sort of an extended nets session for the Indian team because, unfortunately, the team has no time to prepare for the subsequent tour of South Africa. Captain Virat Kohli said this, yet again highlighting the need for better planning for better performance abroad. “We have two days before we board the flight for South Africa (after the series vs Sri Lanka),” Kohli said. “That leaves us with no time to prepare and that’s why we have decided to have these conditions at home.” Kohli said the team gets criticised if it doesn’t do well abroad; he said such criticism is unfair if the team has not had any time to prepare for conditions that are completely different from the conditions in India.

“When we travel abroad, we sometimes get criticised for not doing well. What people don’t take into account is the inadequate time for preparation,” the captain said. “We play on one kind of pitches at home and hardly get the time to get used to the conditions when we travel. We need about a couple of weeks and I don’t mind being criticised if we do poorly after that.” 

“When we know that we won’t get time to prepare for such conditions in South Africa, we thought it’s better to have these conditions at home,” he said. “Had we got a month off ideally, we would have done a proper preparation in a camp sort of scenario but we have to sort of make do with what we have,” the captain explained.

After the T20 leagues became fixtures in domestic cricket, time for international cricket and preparatory matches has shrunk. India’s captains, though, have rarely complained about this in public. 

CK Khanna, BCCI’s acting president, said Kohli’s views should be taken seriously and “it would be great if this can also be included in the agenda for the December 9 Special General Meeting”. — TNS