Will Virat find his feet in English summer this time?

Virat Kohli will walk out on the ground having a burden of a lot of expectations on his shoulders because firstly he will be captaining Indian Test squad for the first time in England and secondly, he has to cover the dreadful batting outing he had in his last Test series in the United Kingdom. Virat scored in double figures for only 3 times in his 10 innings in the 2014 Test series.

Out of the 21 centuries Virat scored in Test cricket, 11 centuries came in the series away from home. Virat Kohli averages 55.02 overall in Australia, New Zealand, South-Africa, and West-Indies. It is quite significant that Virat had an incredibly successful Test career overall and England now remains the only place where he had played and still didn’t get to prove himself.

Virat has been preparing himself for the English assignment since he joined the county club Surrey to adapt himself in the playing conditions. Virat Kohli also missed the inaugural Test match of Afghanistan in Bangalore to play for the county club because he had to organize himself for a long away tour ahead. However, Indian captain suffered from a neck injury in the meantime and could not participate in Country Championship 2018.

The conditions were quite different when India last toured England because pitches were more supportive for the bowlers as compared to the batsmen but in the duration of four years, the pitches have become a batting paradise in England with little to no help for the bowlers. Two of the highest totals in One-day Internationals are scored at Trent Bridge, Nottingham and on the same venue, England and India will play each other for the third Test of the five-match Test series.

In the media conference before leaving to the United Kingdom, Virat Kohli said, “I think a lot of people have held on to the last tour for too long.” He also added, “My thinking is very different. When I go on a tour, I literally am looking forward to enjoying the country, am not even thinking of the cricket. I know if I’m in a good zone, I will play well. If I think like how people are thinking on the outside, then things don’t happen.”

There has been a major change in the attitude of Virat Kohli in an interval of 4 years and this time his team will be taking ground as favourites of the series. Virat Kohli is already the 6th most successful Indian captain of all time after having the total of 21 wins in his bag.

There are a lot of new guys in the Indian team with Kuldeep Yadav, Lokesh Rahul, Hardik Pandya being most influential among the young ones after their stunning performances to makes their names in the international cricket. Virat will also try to remove stains that were once added to his cricketing book when he was having a bad patch of his career.

Having won the last away Test against South-Africa at Johannesburg, India will try to prolong their winning run so they could maintain the tag of being the best of the world in the real form of the game.