India captain Virat Kohli feels his team's mounting batting troubles are more mental than technical and has urged his fellow batsmen to "keep it simple" in the head to save ongoing Test series against England.
India could only make 107 and 130 in the second Test at Lord's, resulting in an innings and 159-run defeat here yesterday. The team is down 0-2 in the five-match series with the third game due to start on August 18 in Nottingham.
"I don't see any technical deficiency. If a batsman is clear in the head and he's clear about the plans he's taking, then if the ball does something off the pitch, you're able to counter it," said Kohli at the post-match media interaction.
"If my head's clouded then I feel like the ball can do this, or that, or even that. You know there are three-four scenarios that run in your head. It sounds cliche but as the greats have said, keep this game simple, that's all you have to do. You can't come here and think the conditions are too difficult because they are really not if you're prepared to counter them.
The skipper said the demons in the head have to be conquered.
"Any conditions in the world can be easy or as difficult. In India, if you're not mentally there it seems like the ball is doing a whole lot, even when it's not."
"You can't control the toss or the weather. We didn't play good cricket in this game. We bowled well in the beginning but didn't hit our areas consistently. We didn't get enough chances in the field to miss any, but with bat and ball we could have done much better than we did."
"It's very difficult to pinpoint anyone. All we have to do is gear up for the next game, come out positive and not think about that I've done well...It's all about making the team win, and doing anything that we can to make that happen."
"What we did in this game we should definitely be better than that. I'm the first one to come out and accept that because unless you accept your mistake you can't improve on it. Because this is the first time in the last 5 Tests that we've been really outplayed."
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