Virat Kohli confident of Indian bowlers defending any total in ICC World Cup 2019

Indian captain Virat Kohli is confident of his bowlers putting up a good show in the ICC World Cup 2019 and has backed them to defend any total that his batsmen put up.

India face South Africa in their first match of ICC World Cup 2019 on Wednesday at Hampshire Bowl, Southampton, and Kohli while addressing a pre-match press conference said that flexibility would matter in the bowling set-up and the batting line-up will have to be consistent.

He added that the current Indian team is a side which has all the options depending upon the conditions the matches will be played in during the tournament. "Somewhere you might see three seamers, somewhere two wrist-spinners, somewhere you might see a wrist-spinner and a finger spinner playing together. That is why we selected the most balanced side we could have selected and Kedar (Jadhav) is doing well, he is back to full fitness. Kedar is batting in the nets now, he is hitting the ball well, so it is always nice to have him back in the mix because of the variety he brings into the side," said the Indian captain.

Kohli, the world's Number One ranked batsman in ODIs, also pointed out that while big scores may be possible if the pitch allows the batsmen to score freely, but the team will also have to respect the conditions.

"Look, as I said, if the pitch allows you to do that, you will want that 20 or 30 advantage. If the pitch doesn't allow you to do so, we will have to respect the conditions also, which will be a very, very crucial factor. We can't say just because a few games have been high-scoring that we need to go out and get 350. If the pitch demands us to get a solid, 260, 270, 280 or just get to 300 with our bowling attack. We know with our bowling attack any score is defendable with the kind of skill-set that we have and that is the kind of belief we have in our side. So we don't necessarily need to look at any other side based on the conditions if you look at the last game, Pakistan got close to 350 and England couldn't chase it. So it is not like Pakistan couldn't get 350, only England got 350. Any team is capable of scoring big. It only depends on the kind of wicket you are playing on. That will be a thing that we need to assess quickly," he said.

But he quickly added that the score of 500 runs may not be possible in the World Cup due to the pressure factor. "I doubt we will see that in the World Cup to be honest. As I said, pressure is a big factor. Maybe in future, who knows. You see crazy things happening in cricket. Who imagined 400-plus in a 50-over game ever. Anything can happen in this sport. It is evolving and there will be a lot of surprises." ()