Don’t write off champions: Nathan Lyon on Kohli’s recent batting slump
The Australian team must be hoping to take advantage of Virat Kohli’s prolonged batting slump when the two sides clash in the five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy
Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, on Friday heaped praises on spin duo Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, calling them the world’s “strongest spin bowling partnership”. The 30-year-old Delhi batsman even credited the duo for team’s success in recent years.
“It’s all about combinations but I don’t see one ahead of the other in the pecking order. Both of them together are the strongest spin bowling partnership in the world at the moment,” said Kohli, who has 39 ODI centuries under his belt, ahead of the first ODI in Hyderabad on Saturday.
“Our success in the last couple of years is mainly because of these two guys in the team and their impact in the middle overs and their ability to pick up wickets for us,” Kohli said, before adding, “If the combination needs to be changed it will be purely on which bowler is stacked up better against opposition batsmen.”
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Yuzvendra Chahal, who made his debut in 2016, has so far picked up 71 wickets with his leg spin in 40 ODIs, while chinaman Kuldeep Yadav has 77 scalps from 39 matches.
Virat Kohli also said that while finalising Men-in-Blue’s World Cup squad, the upcoming season of Indian Premier League will not be an influencing factor. The 12th edition of IPL will begin on March 23. In the tournament opener, Chennai Super Kings will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“Before we head into the IPL, we need to be absolutely clear of what team we want for the World Cup. I don’t see anything changing on how the IPL goes for any of the players,” said Kohli. “If one or two players do not have a good IPL season, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the picture for the World Cup. Those things are not going to matter.”
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