Virat Kohli not thinking too much about 49th ODI ton, focused on winning World Cup: Rahul Dravid
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has asserted that senior batter Virat Kohli is not thinking too much about his record-equaling 49th ODI ton, but is focused on winning the 2023 World Cup for India.
Kohli, who is celebrating his 35th birthday on Sunday, November 5, has 48 ODI hundreds from 288 matches. He scored a ton in the match against Bangladesh in Pune, but missed out on three figures against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, scoring 95 and 88, respectively.
With one more ODI century, Kohli will draw level with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. However, speaking ahead of India’s big World Cup clash against South Africa on Sunday, Dravid played down the hype and stated that the senior batter’s focus is very much on trying to win the World Cup for India with good performances.
“I think Virat's been really relaxed and as you can see in his performances, you know, batting really well for us, really keen to do well as he always is. So, look, I haven't noticed anything different. He's always been the same," Dravid said at a pre-match press conference.
"He's always been professional, always been hardworking, always been switched on. So, nothing different. And no, I don't really think he's thinking too much about 49 and 50, and probably certainly not about his birthday getting a year older. But no, I think he's been really focused on winning the tournament and playing some good cricket for us. I think he's doing that really well," the Indian legend added.
Kohli is currently India’s leading run-getter in the 2023 World Cup. In seven innings, he has 442 runs at an average of 88.40 and a strike rate of 89.47.
“Nice to have that experience of people at the back end” - Dravid on Suryakumar, Jadeja
While Kohli and Rohit Sharma (402 runs) have led the way for the Men in Blue with the bat, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja have come up with handy contributions down the order. Dravid stated that having two players with experience is a definite plus for the team.
"It's nice to have that experience of people like him [Suryakumar] and Jadeja at the back end just to be able to read that situation and play according to the situation. And that's really important in one-day cricket. T20 cricket sometimes, you know, you just have to play in one way. One day, sometimes lower down the order you can actually... you need to be able to be smart enough of how to read a game and the situation," the head coach said.
Reserving special praise for Jadeja, the 50-year-old pointed out that it’s never easy for someone who comes in at No. 7 because he doesn’t get a chance to bat in every game.
"He's just come in and played critical knocks. Even the last one, he was able to really give us that little bit of a flip, a nice little 30 there. Got a 40 in the two games before that, I think. And so that's really good," Dravid commented.
Jadeja scored 39* off 44 against New Zealand and followed it up with 35 off 24 versus Sri Lanka.