Virat Kohli: Won't change preparation for Champions Trophy

“If you play the sport for so long, you have to accept that these kinds of days will come,” says Kohli of Royal Challengers Bangalore's poor show in this IPL.

Virat Kohli speaks at an event to announce Tissot as RCB's watch partner.

Royal Challengers Bangalore may have endured a miserable IPL season but Virat Kohli is determined not to let those results weigh him down. “If you play the sport for so long, you have to accept that these kinds of days will come,” he said here on Wednesday, speaking at an event to announce Tissot as RCB's watch partner. “When you are doing well you do the same things; even when you are not, you follow the same routines. Whatever I have done in this IPL in terms of preparations and doing my routines right, the same things are going to apply for the Champions Trophy and whatever time I play my cricket. It doesn’t depend on the results.”
RCB has won only two games out of 13 this season, a display that Kohli admitted hurts the players. “The kind of season we have had needs no explanation. It certainly hurts us the most as players. It's tough (to lift morale). We certainly tried everything to turn things around but it just didn’t happen. Last year was great for us, this year has been the total opposite. We probably had our worst season in the IPL in the 10 years and it's an opportunity to start afresh. We've got to accept both sides of this wonderful game. We're surely going to try and come back stronger next year.”
There had been no finger-pointing inside the RCB dressing room, Kohli stated. “There’s nothing extra you can do when things are not going right because it’s not going right for anyone,” he said. “It’s not just one or two players that you have to manage. So as a team if things are not going well, all you can do is maintain a bit of patience and calmness around the change room and not let issues fly around. We have tried to help each other out rather than pushing things on individuals and that has been a hallmark for us this season, bonding as a unit. It’s very easy to get frustrated and point fingers when you are not doing well but I think we have embraced and accepted what has happened.”
At times, his team had seen the funny side of it too, Kohli admitted. “We have tried to laugh it off at times. There have been situations that have been so helpless that we have come back to the change room laughing. It can happen to one or two people, but all 11 thinking and feeling the same way, it’s very rare and a big learning curve for us,” he said.
Kohli would not be drawn, however, on India's plans for next month's ICC Champions Trophy. “I'm sorry, I'm not disclosing any of the combinations right now,” he laughed. “We still have to play the tournament.”