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T20 World Cup | Virat Kohli rues playing with fearful approach after loss against New Zealand

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India suffered another drubbing in the ongoingT20 World Cup and Virat Kohli has pinned the blame on lack of aggression and intensity from both the batsmen and bowlers. Calling the flow of the game against New Zealand “bizarre”, Kohli said that batsmen were fearful at the start and they could not brave putting their wickets at stake in the optimism of success.

He said that Indian players were lacklustre in their body language and New Zealand came with the right attitude and intensive frame of mind to put pressure on them from the rod go.

"Quite bizarre. To be very honest and brutal up front, I don't think we were brave enough with bat or ball," Kohli told the host broadcaster during the post-match presentation. "With the ball, I mean, obviously we didn't have much to play with, but we were just not brave enough with our body language when we entered the field, and New Zealand had better intensity, better body language, and they created pressure on us from the first over onwards, really, and continued that through the innings.

"Every time we felt like we want to take a chance [while batting], we lost a wicket. That happens in T20 cricket, but that's most probably or most often the result of that little bit of hesitation with the bat when you feel like should you go for the shot or not."

India are languishing at the brink of elimination from the tournament after losing heavily to both the Blackcaps and Pakistan.

The game against New Zealand was a virtual quarter-final for the men in blue and it was telling on their faces that they feared losing the game. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma was defensive in their approach and allowed bowlers to continue bowling with their strengths.

However, Kohli said that the fear of occasion can’t be an excuse to hide lack of execution on the field and outlined that every player who seeks success at the highest level must learn to live with the pressure that playing for India brings with it.

"When you play for the Indian cricket team, you obviously have a lot of expectations, everyone knows that - not only from the fans but from the players themselves," he said. "Wherever we play, we are watched, people come to the stadiums to support us, so there's always going to be more with our games, that's always been the case, and we've embraced it over the years, and everyone who plays for the Indian team obviously has to embrace that as well, and learn how to cope with it.

"And when you cope with that as a team, you tend to overcome that pressure and those tough situations. And we haven't, in these two games, and that's why we haven't won."

He said that players need to disconnect from what is being talked about and what is at stake while on the field while weighing on that there is plenty of time left in the tournament and that Team India are yet not out of the tournament.

"So I think you have to disconnect from that a little bit and just back ourselves out there and take pride in performing for the team. As long as individuals are looking to do that, I think we'll be fine. There's a lot of cricket to play in this tournament, something that we all must look forward to, and certainly, the team must look forward to, and go out with a positive frame of mind."

India have their three Super 12 games remaining against Namibia, Afghanistan and Scotland and they have to win all of them with a handsome margin and while also hoping for an Afghanistan win over New Zealand to make it to the semi-finals.

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