Virat Kohli supports the trend of fielding two teams simultaneously in the future.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli during his pre-departure press conference, right before boarding a flight to the UK, supports the idea of fielding two different squads simultaneously and hinted at it to become a normal norm going ahead, especially when players have to live inside these bio-bubbles for long.
Due to the messy situations across the globe, the cricketers are forced to play under a strict environment and Indian skipper believes that to be mentally taxing.
India will be in England for the final of the World Test Championship and the five matches England-India test series while a second-string Indian outfit will be announced which will take on Sri Lanka in the limited-overs series on the island.
“With the current structure and the kind of structure that you’re competing inside for a long period of time, it’s very difficult for the players to stay motivated and find the right kind of mental space,” Kohli said in the pre-departure press conference.
“You know just confined in one area and just doing the stuff, day in day out when you’re dealing with high-pressure situations. So, this (two squads) will definitely become a norm for the future,” he added.
The Indian squad have undergone a severe two weeks quarantine in Mumbai and will have a round of soft quarantine upon landing in the UK.
Virat Kohli priorities mental health amid dire times:
Players across the globe have turned their voice on the challenges faced by them being in the bio-bubble environment for the tournament after tournaments.
Virat Kohli, who comes in the top bracket of fittest athletes in the world, feels that the mental side of fitness will come into play.
“Apart from the workloads, the mental health side of things will also come into the picture big time because you don’t have an outlet at all,” said Kohli.
“In today’s day and age you literally go into the ground, come back to the room, and you have no space where you can just disconnect from the game and just go out for a walk or go out for a meal or a coffee and say, ‘okay, let me refresh myself, let me just get away from the game a little bit.”
The Indian skipper doesn’t want the players to fall apart due to the mental strain they are getting during these testing situations and said the mental health of the cricketers will be paramount to the team.
“So I think this is a huge factor which should not be neglected. Because as much hard work as we’ve done to create this team, you don’t want players falling out because of the mental pressures and not having the capacity or the space to express themselves.”
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