Kolkata: Their last encounter at the World Cup created a lot of controversy - but ahead of the tour to Bangladesh, Indian Test captain Virat Kohli on Sunday asserted that his team holds no grudge against its opponents.
“We had issues in the past but we have moved ahead. We are finished with the World Cup and played a lot of cricket since then. So I don’t think there will be any remembrance or memory of that,” said Kohli referring to India’s World Cup quarter-final game against Bangladesh.
“We are going there to play and win a Test match and that’s our primary focus. There won’t be any grudges or ill feelings about the opposition. It’s pure and simple professionalism,” Kohli said at a media conference here.
India are scheduled to play a one-off Test match, beginning June 10, followed by a three-match One-Day International (ODI) series.
India defeated Bangladesh by 109 runs in the Cup quarter-final. The defeat created a furore in Bangladesh, with their cricket officials and fans expressing their dismay over a number of umpiring decisions, which they claimed had unfairly gone against them.
Even then ICC president Mustafa Kamal, who hails from Bangladesh, smelt a conspiracy over “a dozen umpiring decisions” and alleged it could have been a deliberate attempt to throw out his country from the quadrennial event.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) rubbished the accusations.
Subsequently, Kamal was omitted from attending the presentation ceremony after the World Cup final with ICC chairman, India’s N. Srinivasan doing the honours. An angry Kamal stepped down from his post thereafter, which threatened to dampen the diplomatic relations between the two neighbouring countries.
On on-field affairs, Kohli said though his team was good on the skills front, it needed to improve on the fitness aspect.
“The team is in good shape. On the skills front we have been really good for a while and looking for consistency. Fitness is an area that we need to strengthen more and more going ahead so that we have less injuries and we play the same set of players to build a match-winning combination,” he said.
“Fitness is the primary focus of any game. If we strengthen that over a period of six to eight months from now that will help us in the coming three-four years and guys going through tough phase in Test match.
“We feel that fitness is an area that we need to improve and I feel it is the need of the hour. Bringing minor changes in attitude, in fitness level, in improving our skills, is something we plan to do as a whole unit,” the 26-year-old said.
Following recurrent injuries to players, the BCCI got all the players selected for the Bangladesh trip undergo fitness test at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. This is the first time that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decreed that all cricketers need to take the fitness test before embarking on the tour.
Hitherto, only injured players were subjected to fitness test prior to a series.
