India is the team to beat, says captain Virat Kohli

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli says his relationship with the Head Coach of the team, Ravi Shastri, is based on mutual respect and trust, which has helped them make it the team that “everyone wants to beat”.

“Our working relationship, and off the field as well, has been built on mutual respect and trust, on a vision that has been shared, which has been focussed in one direction, which is to take Indian cricket higher and in a better place than we found it,” Virat Kohli said during an event at the Taj Hotel in London this week.

“We stand as the team that everyone wants to beat anywhere we play in the world, and that for us is a matter of immense pride,” he was quoted in the Indian media as saying.

He was speaking just ahead of the fourth Test against England at the Kia Oval which begins on September 2.

“It’s been one spicy series, that’s the way it should be, and I just think it’ll be spicier over the next couple of weeks,” Shastri said, in reference to the India versus England ongoing five-match Test series which has two games remaining.

The two squads, led by Kohli and Joe Root, meet at the Oval in London this week, where both sides will be keen to notch up a win to take the lead in the series which stands level at one all at the moment.