‘We’re closer to landing at stadium, playing right away’

Auckland, January 23

India captain Virat Kohli took a dig at the scheduling of their tour of New Zealand within five days of a home assignment against Australia, saying cricketers are “getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium and playing straight”.

India are set to take on New Zealand in a five-match T20I series from tomorrow after winding up the three-ODI series against Australia on Sunday. Kohli said the short turnaround is tough given the busy international calendar.

“Well, it’s definitely getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium and playing straight. That’s how compressed the game has become but I think this kind of travel and coming to a place, which is seven hours ahead of India time, is always difficult to adjust immediately,” Kohli said on the eve of the first T20I.

“So, I am sure these things will be taken into consideration much more in the future... Yeah, it is what it is, you can do whatever you can to get better and get on the park again, and that’s international cricket for you today, it is back to back,” he said.

On the upside, the skipper said the scheduling ensures that players are in the zone. “The last series we played against Australia was ODIs so we spent more time on the field, but we played a few T20s before that,” he said. “Having played a lot more cricket than just T20s in the last three games, we will find it easier to come here and play even though with less time to prepare.”

Relaxed NZ

Kohli said touring New Zealand is much less overwhelming than other countries as cricketers don’t seem to have a larger-than-life image here. “Any New Zealand tour is much more relaxed. Every tour is a representation of how people look at the game in that region,” he said. “In New Zealand, the game is looked at as a job for the guys that play the game. It is not larger than life or the most important thing in life.” — PTI

Flying Club

Virat Kohli talked about back-to-back series giving players little time to acclimatise. He’s right — here’s how much the team travelled over the last four months

16 Cities across India that the team has played in over the last four months, from September 18, before travelling to New Zealand

N.E.W.S Mohali was the north-most venue, and Thiruvananthapuram the southern-most. Rajkot in the west and Guwahati in east were the venues in the other extremities. The team also played in Nagpur, the central city in the country

22 Matches India played --- 5 Tests, 6 ODIs, and 11 T20Is. India won 16 and lost 5 of these games

5 Teams India played against — South Africa, Bangladesh, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Australia

35 Days of playing time for these matches --- 4 of 5 Tests ended on fourth day or earlier, and one T20I was washed out. Apart from match-play time, there was a lot of pre-match and post-match travel, and pre-match training days