India are looking at the ongoing ODI series against Sri Lanka mainly as preparation for the World Cup and home team's captain Virat Kohli today said the recent performances of the pace bowlers, especially Umesh Yadav, has given him a lot of hope going into the mega-event.
"I have been very impressed with Umesh (Yadav) since he came back (from injury). He has been bowling quick and has also been consistent, not inconsistent any more," said Kohli ahead of the second ODI tomorrow.
"He's hitting good areas with good pace and that's giving the batsmen trouble on flat wickets like the other day as well in Delhi against the West Indies (in the abandoned series) when his opening spell was really nice. He's working on his death bowling as well," said Kohli.
Talking about other members of pace attack, Kohli said: "Ishant (Sharma) has been playing Test cricket for a while now so he knows what to do and how to do it. Obviously he will have good and bad times. He also bounced back pretty well after not having such a very good ODI season.
"Coming closer to the World Cup it's great to see all these guys bowling really well as a stronger pace attack in Australia will give us an added advantage," said the stylish batsman.
Kohli also praised the batting, India's strongest suit for years, and said the idea was to try out different players in different batting positions in the ongoing five-match series.
"The batting has come together very nicely over the past one or one and half years. It's not like it has happened recently, it's a gradual process and the guys are more comfortable batting in their spots. The whole idea of this series is to try different people at different positions and see how they react to those situations, but it's not like neglecting the fact that we have to win the games.
"It's obviously keeping in mind that those guys are good enough to play in those positions and able to win those games for us. It's all about infusing that confidence into people and they will end up giving you the result. So this is just a phase leading up to the World Cup," said Kohli.
