In spite of off-field turmoil, Virat Kohli not short of motivation to create history in South Africa

Amidst the drama and series of controversies over his status as the captain of the Indian ODI team, Virat Kohli has not lost sight of the next challenge that he and his side is about to face in the final days of this year. 

Kohli is mindful of the “different kind of challenge” and India’s torrid history in South Africa but he is not short of motivation to write a fresh history in the upcoming series starting December 26.

He tasted his first overseas win as India’s Test captain on the last tour of South Africa on a pitch that asked both technical and mental questions out of the batsmen. Kohli said that the Johannesburg win in the 2018 series gave his side the belief that they could win not only odd Tests but also series on overseas tours. 

He urged his teammates to take some heart out of that performance against the “toughest conditions” on that tour and asked players to be ready to stand up to any conditions or challenges that come their way in the series.

“South Africa was really the start for us as a team, travelling and starting to believe we can win series overseas," he said. "We built it up nicely in England, and Australia was an accumulation of all those efforts."

"We can take a lot of motivation from that [Test win in 2018]; of course we probably won in the toughest conditions on that tour. So that should give us a lot of confidence that if we have the right mindset, and we start off the series with confidence and belief, we can stand up to any challenge that comes our way and take a lot of heart from it."

"South Africa presents a different kind of challenge. The wickets have a lot of pace and bounce, and you have to be at your absolute best to perform there and get runs, get difficult runs. It's something we've tried to do as a team but probably left ourselves a bit too much to do at certain times, and when sessions have gone bad, they have gone very bad, which we have controlled well in the recent past with more experience and guys understanding conditions. So, I think we're well-placed in terms of experience, belief, and confidence that this time around we can do something special and get results we want as a team and overcome conditions to go and win a series."

"South Africa is one place where we have not won a series yet, so we're motivated to do that, and the mindset is to go out there and win a series in any country that we play. We don't anymore think of just winning a Test match here and there, and we will do our absolute best that we can as a team to make sure we keep contributing towards that cause."

Kohli’s strong words and high expectations of his teammates is not a new phenomenon and at times he has been criticised for drawing hyperbolic comparisons. However, neither Kohli nor India have bogged down since that tour of South Africa and they have won back to back Test series in Australia and came close to winning one series in England while giving them a run for their money in the series played in the year 2018.

Kohli would also be eager to get back among runs as he will lead the batting group without Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja, while the other two batsmen who have had success in South Africa in Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara are going through a tough time with the bat. Kohli himself is short of big runs and his last century came in the year 2019 and a lot of India’s fortunes will hinge on his bat as he was the leading run-scorer in the three-match series in 2017-18 as well.