HIGHLIGHTS

• India better prepared for Test series against England: Virat Kohli
• This is Virat Kohli’s fourth tour of England and second as captain
• Tests are about capitalising when things turn your way: Virat Kohli

India captain Virat Kohli believes that his team is definitely much better prepared for the upcoming five-Test match series against England as they have spent the past two months in the UK and got acclimatised to the conditions.

“We are definitely much better prepared than we have been in the past,” Kohli said in the pre-series presser ahead of the opening Test.

Compared to 2018, when the team lost 1-4 due to a couple of bad sessions, the skipper feels that they are “much better prepared” this time around with two months in England helping them to acclimatise with changes in the weather pattern.

“The players, who were inexperienced in 2018 are now more experienced. Yes, there will be failures but we will have enough players to raise their hands up and be counted in pressure situations.”

The key learning from the last series is understanding the art of damage control

“Understanding how tocontrol damage when things are not going your way. Test cricket is all about going through situations and then capitalising when things turn your way.

“It is because you won’t have all sessions going your way so when things do not favour you as a team, that’s an area we want to keep improving. In the Test matches where we have done that, we have ended up winning.

Skipper Kohli also took this opportunity to congratulate the Indian athletes who have been doing well at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. India now has three confirmed medals with weightlifter Mirabai Chanu winning a silver and star shuttler PV Sindhu winning her second Olympic medal — a bronze in women’s singles.

A third assured medal is boxer Lovlina Borgohain who will fight her semi-finals on Wednesday.

“We all have been keenly following when we were in Durham, at the breakfast arena, we had big screens and televisions, which were always running all the Olympic events and especially our athletes when they were performing, we were all keenly watching,” Kohli said.

“The whole country and all of us included are super proud of all the medal winners and also the people who have gone far into the competition, who might not have won medals, but you know who have competed and given their best, so we are all very proud of them as everyone else in the country is and we have been keenly watching and supporting them from here,” the aggressive right-handed batsman added.