Virat Kohli slams reporter: India vs Pakistan is just another game

Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli during a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

The first time a reporter fired a Pakistan-related question to Virat Kohli yesterday, the Indian skipper snubbed him. When asked if India should be playing Pakistan with so much of political tension between both countries, Kohli shot back and asked: "What do you think?" It didn't get any further than that.

It's different for players

But another question, again on Pakistan, but phrased more articulately, on how the players look at the upcoming Indo-Pak encounter in the CT, Kohli said: "With due respect, with whatever is going on around an issue, as a cricketer you can't even think of your partner at the non-striker end when you are facing a ball. So we have to forget thinking about things that anyway are not in our control. For us cricketers, it is about playing the game we love — that feeling never changes. Indo-Pak games are always exciting for the fans. It may be different for the people in general because atmosphere in the stadium is different, but for us cricketers, and you can ask anyone from either team — it is just another game of cricket."

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India take on Pakistan at Edgbaston, Birmingham on June 4. Kohli stressed that hype created around the game is not in their control.

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Business as usual
"We will prepare for the game in the same way we prepare for other games. Yes, the atmosphere in the ground will be different and the hype around the game is beyond us, but in our heads, nothing changes, no matter whom we are playing, whether it is Pakistan, Australia, England, South Africa or New Zealand. It is all the same for us," he said. When he was asked about a strategy in place for Pakistan, Kohli said, "It is not that we are playing Pakistan for the first time, so there is no necessity for any special meeting or instruction or talks. This question is asked every time India plays Pakistan and every time the answer is the same, that we don't plan anything special."

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