Virat Kohli issues warning to his teammates ahead of World Test Championship final against Australia

The pressure appears on former Team India skipper Virat Kohli after being outdone by the buoyant Black Caps across the World Test Championship’s maiden edition and performing admirably with the bat in India’s second consecutive championship final. India, who finished second last year under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, will square up against Pat Cummins’ Australia in the World Test Championship final on Wednesday at The Oval. One of the best captains in one of the longest formats, Kohli led India to the World Test Championship’s inaugural final in 2021.

However, Kohli and co. were unable to end India’s trophy drought in major competitions as the Asian heavyweights were defeated by New Zealand led by Kane Williamson in the gloomy Southampton final. Kohli has returned to top form in the second Test Championship, taking on the role of pure batter after stepping down as captain of the Test team.

We will need to concentrate on our focus and discipline: Virat Kohli

India’s batsmen have been urged to be cautious on the neutral ground of The Oval by Kohli, who helped India break their Test century drought in their previous encounter with Australia. In a recent interview with Star Sports on Follow the Blues, Kohli discussed the difficulties of playing against Cummins and co. at the renowned venue. The Royal Challenger batter said, “I think The Oval will be challenging, we won’t get a flat wicket and batters need to be cautious. We will need to concentrate on our focus and discipline.”

The former Team India skipper spoke about how the Indian team needs to adapt to the pitch and how it is behaving. He said, “So you need to have the experience to play as per the conditions and we cannot go in with the expectation that The Oval pitch will play as it always has. So we have to adjust and adapt, we have only one match in a neutral venue so whoever adapts better will win the match. This is the beauty of the World Test Championship, two neutral teams with no home advantage, so it will be very exciting to see how both teams adapt to the situation.”