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We were not brave enough: Virat Kohli

Indian captain Virat Kohli blamed India’s poor body language and intensity on the field for the defeat against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup. The Kiwis beat India’s by 8 wickets to dent India’s hopes of reaching the semi-final.

Indian captain Virat Kohli on Sunday said his team was not brave enough with the bat, ball and in its body language as it copped an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of New Zealand which has put the side in danger of a group-stage exit from the T20 World Cup.

In the post-match press conference, Kohli said, “To be brutal upfront, I don’t think we were brave enough with bat/ball. We obviously didn’t have much to play with the ball. We were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field and NZ had better intensity, body language.”

“Every time we took a chance, we lost a wicket. It’s most often a result of hesitation of whether you should go for a shot or not. When you play for India, there are loads of expectations,” added the Indian skipper.

Kohli also suggested that India did not embrace the pressure and suffered because of it in the first two games of the mega-event.

He said, “We are watched, people come to the stadium and everyone who plays for India needs to embrace that and cope with it. We haven’t done that in these two games, and that’s why we haven’t won. We have to be optimistic and positive and take calculated risks.”

However, the Indian captain retained hopes that there is still a chance for them to progress to the semi-final with a lot of cricket still left to be played.

“We have to disconnect from the pressure and continue with our process, and play a positive brand of cricket. There’s a lot of cricket to play in the tournament,” said Kohli.

The Men in Blue were beaten by 8 wickets in what was described as a ‘virtual quarter-final’ going into the game. India will need a miracle to progress to the semi-final with a poor net-run rate weighing their chances down.

India are scheduled to play Afghanistan on November 3, Scotland on November 5 and Namibia on November 8

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