Zampa: Need to have a strong character to get the better of Kohli

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who dismissed Virat Kohli in the first ODI, said that a bowler needs to have an attacking mindset while facing the Indian skipper.

Adam Zampa celebrates after dismissing Virat Kohli for a return catch in the first ODI.

T: There is more to Adam Zampa than his six-wicket haul in the Indian Premier League. The Australia leg-break bowler has been one of the most consistent and wicket-taking bowlers in white-ball cricket, especially in ODIs. It reflected in the fact that he dismissed Virat Kohli fourth time in 11 innings at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday, which was one of the turning points of the series-opener.

Zampa on the eve of the second ODI admitted that Australia find Kohli vulnerable against leggies at the start of the innings. “We basically just find that Virat finds leg-spinners hard to line up early in his innings, to be honest. He’s such a great starter, even the other day he was 16 off 14 or whatever it was, how much energy he brought to the crease, his running between the wickets, some of the cover drives he played off the quicks, Zampa said on Thursday.

”I think it’s important to try and have a gameplan  to him, so we figured out for that last game that it would be good to start with leg-spin to him. It might be different next game. As it’s been mentioned, I’ve got him out four times in the last year or so it’s nice to have that confidence to bowl to him at the start of his innings.”

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Even before the start of the series, Kohli had complimented Zampa for his character during Australia’s five-match series in India last year. Terming it as a “big compliment” Zampa stressed he is “not the most skillful legspinner in the world, that's for sure”. “One of the most important things I have always tried to do is have strong character. To be a wrist-spinner in one-day cricket in the middle overs is not easy at all. It’s probably one of the hardest formats,” he added.

Trailing 1-0 in a three-match series, India has its back to the wall but middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer said the team believes in staging a comeback, like it did against West Indies last month.

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We can still come back stronger, says Shreyas
 

“We have seen that in the past as well we were 0-1 down against the West Indies, its not that as if we have lost the series, we can still come back strong and that’s what we discussed in the dressing room,” Shreyas said.

“We need to back and believe in ourselves and also in our teammates that in a pressure situation somebody will stand up and see to it that they the team through through. We didn’t do well that well in all three departments. A lot of areas we need to work on and we will comeback in the next match.”