India's Kohli adopts positive approach

New Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli wants his team to play positively and not back down from confrontations with Australia.

After the shock of skipper MS Dhoni's resignation, India's new Test captain Virat Kohli will encourage his team to play positively and not to back down in the face of more Australian aggression.

Middle order linchpin Kohli, 26, will lead the team in the fourth and final Test starting in Sydney on Tuesday after Dhoni's announcement last week.

"We were all taken aback by his decision because it was so sudden," Kohli said at the SCG on Monday.

"We had no clue. We never saw it coming, so it was pretty shocking.

"We really didn't know what to say to him.

"It was a very emotional moment for him and we as youngsters who started under his captaincy, it was a very strange moment for us also."

Kohli said he would continue tapping Dhoni's brain and seeking advice from the 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman who has played almost 400 times for India across the three forms of international cricket.

"There's so much to learn from him, especially in tough situations. His composure, his decision making at important times," Kohli said.

"These are the things which are priceless. Any captain would love to have them. I hope I can be as calm as him, but everyone has different styles."

Kohli, who has scored a team-leading 499 runs at an average of 83 with three centuries this series, led india in the first Test in Adelaide when Dhoni was injured.

"There were quite a few things that I sat down and analysed in Adelaide that can be improved on and I've thought about them in the past few days," Kohli said.

"What are the things that I can correct from Adelaide, the mistakes I made in that game? Hopefully I'll get those right and try to make the right decisions in every situation out there in the middle."

He said India would play positively under his leadership and stressed they wouldn't back down in the final Test of a series notable for numerous on-field spats.

But that he said wasn't just a case of him pushing his own philosophy.

"It's an opportunity for a whole team to have a vision together, I'm not thinking about this as a vision for myself," Kohli said.

Kohli said the team needed to win more of the important moments in games and was encouraged by the efforts of his young pacemen in the second innings of the third Test in Melbourne.


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Source: AAP


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