Virat Kohli believes the learning stage for his young Test team is over and they need to start thinking about winning matches.
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The 26-year-old, who was handed the reins following Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s shock retirement from Tests during the Australia series last year, will be hoping to log his first win as captain when India take on Bangladesh in a one-off Test at Fatulla from Wednesday.
In the three Tests that he skippered in Australia, India lost one and drew the remaining two. He led from the front scoring four centuries and was India’s best batsman in the series with 692 runs at an average of 86.50.
Kohli urges his teammates to buy into his vision of winning games.
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“We have learnt a lot but I don’t think we have to keep playing with the mindset of ‘we have to keep learning all the time’. Obviously, you learn about the game every day, you learn watching on TV as well.
“We have played enough Tests so that we start executing our skills and getting results our way and have the vision and the focus to win Test matches,” he said ahead of the team’s departure to Bangladesh where they will also be playing three one-dayers.
“Unless we want to have a vision of winning Test matches, executing our skills against the best in the world, we are falling short of the goals that we want to achieve.
“We know what we want to achieve as a unit, it’s just the mental thing that has to be right. We have learnt in the past few Test matches and months but starting now, we want to start achieving the results that we really want, not go away from every Test match thinking about what we have learnt from it.”
Fitness is another area where Kohli wants his team to lay emphasis upon.
“The team is looking in good shape. We conducted a fitness test on Saturday because we feel that fitness is one area where we need to strengthen ourselves.
“We want to create an environment firstly where players feel they are here to stay for a while. They feel confident about their abilities.
“And on the fitness front, it’s the primary focus of any sport and if you sustain that and if you strengthen that it will help us in the next three-four years when guys go through tough phases in Test cricket because they are up there with the fitness and skill levels as well.
“So it has to be a combination of both and that’s what we primarily want to focus on. That’s something we feel we can improve on and it’s most definitely the need of the hour as far as Test cricket is concerned. We have plans and ambitions and goals that we want to achieve, but it will happen one step at a time.
“Everyone is really excited for a fresh beginning. I am certainly excited about leading the team,” he added.
India has a busy season at home lined up once they return from Bangladesh. They will be hosting South Africa for four Tests, five one-dayers and three Twenty20 games in October-November. India will also host the World Twenty20 in March next year
