Puts up brave face on eve of Bangalore Test, promises free-flowing cricke

Having been handed a shock defeat in the first Test in Pune, India will try to come back hard against Australia when the second Test starts at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday. India captain Virat Kohli was gung-ho on the eve of the match while his counterpart Steven Smith would be cautious, knowing well that the hurt home team would come back hard at them.

As it was the case in Pune, the pitch is under the scanner here in Bengaluru too. On Friday, it looked brownish with patches of green visible from a distance. But it all depends on how it looks in the morning. And then the crucial toss of coin will come into play, as it did in India’s 333-run mauling inside three days.

Kohli was his usual self at the customary pre-match press conference.

“I think it's an opportunity to understand what other things we still need to work on,” Kohli said, looking back and looking ahead.

He added, “We are all professional cricketers. But sometimes when you are winning a lot of games, you don't tend to focus on points that need to be improved as such because someone or the other is stepping up.”

The India captain said that he doesn’t try to force his teammates to play in a particular way, certainly not after the crushing defeat after India remaining unbeaten in 19 Tests at home.

“We don't necessarily push people to practice in different ways because every individual has his own way of preparing for the game. But in terms of mindset we have made a conscious push to go out there and express ourselves without thinking about ‘what if’. Individuals want to play their natural game and they should; they want to bowl a certain way and they should, not thinking about the outcome necessarily,” Kohli said.

A couple of times Kohli was asked the question about the playing XI for the five-Test, but he deflected the questions with a smile. “We have our ideas; we will go in with the best combination possible,” he said.

Kohli, for whom M. Chinnaswamy Stadium is the home ground when he captains Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL, had a special word of praise for off-spinner Jayant Yadav. “Jayant has been outstanding. You can't put too much pressure on a guy who's played just one series. He's been brilliant so far; the way he's grabbed his spot has been outstanding. He's a very intelligent cricketer,” he said.

Quite early after taking over the reins of the Test team –- after the Galle Test defeat to Sri Lanka, to be precise -- Kohli had declared that he would pick the XI on the horses-for-courses basis. On Friday, he hinted at some “surprises” on Saturday, but wouldn’t reveal them.

“Eventually we'll come to a conclusion this evening on what is the XI we want to go with. But, yes, all kinds of possibilities tomorrow. Might be a few surprises,” he said, teasingly.

Will that surprise be left-arm Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav? We shall know tomorrow.

Australia captain Smith, too, was asked about the pitch, which has become the centre of the debate.

“That was that wicket [in Pune]. Now we have to sum it up again with this wicket. I think this one is more likely going to be one where we are going to have to go really big, but it could be totally different, it could play totally different to what we think at the moment,” he told reporters.

“It's about being able to sum it up and being adaptable and being able to communicate straight away what we think the wicket is like,” said the Aussie captain.