India’s Test captain has a plan and a vision up his sleeve. He speaks confidently of his teammates, his plans to gather a Test unit for the long run and of the tour to Sri Lanka with a full-fledged 3-match Test series in hand. Virat Kohli believes the three Tests in Sri Lanka will help the team get their combinations right and give stability to the Test side in the long run. “It is an opportunity to have certain plans to prepare for a particular series and actually continuously do the same things over the period of three Test matches,” Kohli said, before the team’s departure for the Sri Lanka tour. “It is very exciting for me as a captain and for us as a squad as well. Whatever ideas we come up with and plans we make, we have a lot of time to execute those plans and see where we stand. We can also judge ourselves on the basis of those three Test matches as to how many times we were able to do what we actually wanted to do. “You don’t get that opportunity in one-off Test matches because you can prepare for a week or ten days and then the game gets over in five days and then you don’t have another Test to correct things and straightaway go into the second game. It is exciting to be able to have that opportunity of executing certain things that we want to do as a team.” Kohli also stressed upon playing an aggressive brand of cricket as captain and a batsman; a quality that he believed would help the team achieve the desired results. He believed Rohit Sharma’s role in the batting order will prove to be pivotal in the team’s success. For captain Kohli, Sharma was an ‘impact’ player at the top of the order. “Rohit bats up the order in ODIs and was batting at No.6 at one stage when it came to Test cricket. That was way off the kind of setup that he had in ODI cricket. We play so much ODI cricket that as a batsman you want to bat closer to one particular position in both formats. We figured out Rohit is an impact player and the best way to get the best out of him was to make him bat at the top. He has done well in Australia when he batted at 3. I think he needs to get more opportunity there. Once he settles down in that spot, he could be that catalyst we need in the middle order who can keep the scoring rate going. He is so naturally gifted. Once he is in he has got massive scores for Mumbai and we all know that. We want to give him that game time and that ample opportunity to get us that big score and in quick time. “He doesn’t score slowly and that gives the side more chances to bowl that extra 20-30 overs which can be the difference in the game. That was the idea behind sending him at 3 and he was pretty happy as well, getting that opportunity rather than being in the change room for long which he is not used to in one-day cricket.” Talking about batting positions, Kohli was also asked about how he would be playing the three openers in the side - Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan & KL Rahul. Will Rahul drop down the order with Vijay and Dhawan amongst the runs? Or will he take a call and omit one of them from the eleven? For Kohli though, it was a good headache to have. “The opening slot is a slot that has been contested very strongly. Vijay has been a guy who has been very solid for us at the top of the order. He has really improved his game immensely in the last one-one and a half years. He has given us very solid starts everywhere we have played Test matches over the past 12 months. You saw KL Rahul coming through in Australia batting really well. That was the time when Shikhar was not performing consistently, so KL stepped in beautifully and now Shikhar has got runs again. It is just a matter of shift in the balance as to who is playing well at that particular stage. A problem of plenty is never bad. We might as well have three guys who are playing well rather than two guys who are not playing well and have one guy playing well. This is a good problem to have in the side. I am not really worried about that.” Batting aside, Kohli hinted at playing three spinners in Sri Lanka. “That could be a big possibility. The idea is to take twenty wickets. That is the only way you can win a Test match,” he said. “I feel you need to bowl a stronger bowling side in order to win Test matches. The whole idea of the five bowlers is that the top six have to take up more responsibility. We have people like R Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harbhajan singh who are very handy with the bat. Ashwin averages forty in Test match cricket and I don’t see any reason why he cannot be that all-rounder for us. “It is all about giving people goals and asking them to improve on a certain aspect and provide that extra balance that the team requires. The batsmen have to take more responsibility which is more challenging and exciting and satisfying as well.” Elaborating on bowling plans and what he expected from his bowlers going ahead Kohli said, “This is an opportunity for us to make a few plans with bowlers and batsmen. Firstly, asking the bowlers what kind of fields that they want, where they want to bowl and what they think is the best way to get a particular batsman out. If that doesn’t work, then there is always a plan B where the management and myself come into the picture. The emphasis will be on giving those bowlers more responsibility and more ownership saying that this is what you are going to get if this is what you want and it is your responsibility to execute a particular plan. I am really certain that the fast bowlers will be able to execute their plans. Our attacking spinners will give them more cushion as far as taking wickets and creating pressure is concerned.” Talking about his own form and preparations ahead of the tour Kohli was of the view that the decision to play for India A in the 4-day game against Australia A was a sensible one. Not only did he get some time in the middle but also got a chance to get a few tips from Rahul Dravid. Also, he stressed a lot on adding the sweep shot to his batting armoury. “I am really glad I came here (Chennai) and played that game and got some good time playing in the middle, fielding in the game and training with the squad. It has been a very good preparation. I wanted to practice playing on pitches that are much more difficult as far as spinners are concerned. I have got decent practice in the last one week. “Everyone has their own strengths and I feel as an international batsman, on a personal level, you need to keep improving on your game and keep adding things that you feel could make the difference in probably the next six to twelve months in your game. Sweeping is one aspect of the game that I was always looking to improve on. I played a lot of it in Australia and I figured out that the sweep shot is something that you need to have as a batsman to tackle in difficult situations playing on turning pitches. It was indeed helpful to have Rahul Dravid on the sidelines and closely monitor what I was trying to do. He has been very helpful in the past five to six days.”