'Dukes ball buries egos' advices India Captain Virat Kohli to Tim Paine’s Australia Cricket team ahead of Ashes Test series

Dukes ball buries egos

After becoming the first India Captain to win a Test series in Australia, Virat Kohli has some advice for the Australia Cricket team. 

        

He says, “Playing in England, what I experienced this time was, if you go out there with an ego you might as well not go out at all because that Dukes ball, it buries egos pretty quickly. You have to curb yourself, do the hard yards, grind it out the whole day. You have to be patient as a batsman. There's a lot of time in Test cricket. Sometimes because we're so nervous as batsmen we don't quite realise it, you just want to get away quickly but in England you're not allowed to do that, so you have to bide your time, earn the right score runs eventually.

"You have to get into a position where, you should not even look at the scoreboard or the number of balls, it's inconsequential, patience is the only thing that works there. Putting runs on the board again is the most important thing to win Test matches. I'm sure [Australia] will regroup as a unit, we've all gone through those phases where you figure out what needs to be done - it's just mindset. If the same batting unit can go out there more confident and believe that they can do it, it can be done, definitely."

        

Ravi Shastri, the India Coach says, “In England we lost because the lower order often got runs against us. We could have bowled out England much more cheaply, we didn't do it. Here at least we managed to do that, so that can be a big difference. I think Australia has to be patient, because in England that Dukes ball will curve around corners, so you've got to be patient, got to trust your technique, trust that off stump. And it's again belief, because you've got the attack.”

Kohli added, “I wouldn't say they bowled badly, I would say we batted well. I played with Mitchell, I think he's a very skilful bowler, he's got the right mindset and he's been your No. 1 bowler for years now. So I'm a little surprised with the magnitude of the criticism that's come on to him. If he's your best bowler you give him space to works things out, not mount more pressure on him because you don't want to lose a guy like that, who's so skilled and wins you games."