Kohli determined to quash UK bogey

Cricket365
July 8, 2014

The talented Virat Kohli is on a quest to successfully combat the perception that Indian batsmen cannot succeed away from the sub-continent.

Kohli has amassed an impressive average of 46.51 after two dozen Tests. His career aggregate away from home, however, is a considerably smaller 43.10 – and against England just 31.33.

Opportunity to improve these figures will knock come Wednesday, when the first of five Tests in the United Kingdom will get underway at Trent Bridge. Lord's, Rose Bowl, Old Trafford and The Oval will host fixtures two, three, four and the fifth respectively.

"This is right up there with South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. And England, I would say, these are the four places where the sub-continent players do want to perform well and do target. I too have that in my mind. A pretty special place to play cricket," said Kohli.

"I'll be playing a Test at Lord's for the first time so all in all a very exciting tour for me personally because I have never played Test cricket here before. I am really looking forward to it. I have some goals I want to achieve, and I have been thinking about them. I am pretty excited about playing here, and it is right up there with the toughest venues for subcontinent players."

India's previous Test tour of England, in 2011, resulted in a four-nil defeat. They have since lost the services of the retired VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. The latter, however, has been recruited as a mentor. Dravid will work with a relatively inexperienced order, including openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay, middle-order batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma – and all-rounder Stuart Binny.

"We haven't spoken about what we did wrong in that series. We've spoken about the positives we could take out of it. A guy who played brilliantly in that series, Rahul, is mentoring us right now, speaking about his experiences," added Kohli.

"That's a big plus. We can't focus on the things that went wrong. You don't want to think about them. That was a different time. Three years down the line, we have a totally new side. It's a very exciting time for us because most of us haven't played Test cricket here.

It'll be exciting for us to experience the conditions and everyone's eager to go out there and see what it's like. We've heard a lot from senior players of how it's one of the best places in the world to play Test cricket. You get full crowds, everyone's involved in the game and everyone knows the game, so it's an exciting time for us."