Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that the first Test defeat has not put much impact on the team as they believe to keep patience.

In the thrilling first Test of five-match Test series between England and India at Edgbaston (Birmingham), India lost by 31 runs due to poor batting performance. Apart from the skipper Kohli, other Indian batsmen failed to show good performance in the front of moving the ball. While Kohli scored 149 and 51 in that game, none of the other Indian batsmen scored at least a half-century. In fact, Hardik Pandya’s 31 in India’s second innings was the only other incident where an Indian batsman reached the 30-run mark.

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Prior to the second Test at Lord’s which will begin on Thursday (August 9), Kohli showed his faith on his team batting line-up.

He said, “We should not judge so fast, and jump into conclusions. As a team, we keep patience. We don’t judge so fast. We don’t see any pattern to (the failures). As far as wickets falling in a heap is concerned, it is not about technique, it is more of a mental aspect. It depends on how you think about it after the dismissal. There must be a clear plan on how to face the first 20-30 balls, and more often than not that plan does not involve aggression. There we need some composure, other than aggression, As a batting unit we have discussed that.

“From outside it looks very bad, especially it is Test cricket and we are playing in England where it is anyway difficult. But we only need to bring down the margin of error and beyond that we don’t need to worry too much.”

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While the team India scored 274 and 162 in that Edgbaston Test, Kohli scored 149 and 51 runs in the respective innings which was more than 54% and 31% runs respectively of the whole team. Kohli said that the Edgbaston Test defeat was the same for him like the other defeats, not more bad feelings about it due to his own impressive batting performances.

Kohli said on that, “It doesn’t hurt when you score runs and you don’t win only. It hurts when you are not scoring runs as well, the team is not doing well. It is not like I feel bad that I got runs and we couldn’t get across the line. It is purely because we haven’t won the games.”

“If I hadn’t got the runs and we had won, I would have got a totally different feeling, very natural aspect of playing team sport. My job as a batsman when I go out there is to score runs as a team. I am trying my level best to do that whenever possible. It is not going to happen every time, but when it does I want to try and contribute as much as possible. I definitely don’t see this as a pattern. It is unfortunate we haven’t been able to cross the line after coming so close, that is the only thing we are looking to how we cross the line. It doesn’t matter whether I get the (team) over the line or Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane) does or Vijay does or KL Rahul does or whoever does, as long as we cross the line, that is the only thing that matters.”

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When Kohli was asked whether any particular technique quality is giving him the success, he claimed that each player has their own method, but the preparation level is the key of success including the strong positive mindset.

Kohli elaborated it by saying, “As a batsman it is very difficult for me to point it out. Individuals react differently to different things, variable reasons as to why a particular player is doing a certain thing on the field. That goes into the preparation bit as well. How I prepare will be very different from another player and so on, every other player in the team.

“You can’t pinpoint exactly what the mindset is when a player goes out to bat. On an individual level you try to prepare as well as you can and I see these guys do that in practice sessions we have. As I said it is about going out and being positive about every situation you are in and not about thinking what is going to happen.

“It is just about seeing the ball and reacting according to the ball. Sometimes as a batsman [where] I have faltered in the past is I have thought maybe I will get a good ball somewhere and look to tide over at that particular time. That is something that has pulled me back.

“Now I am in a zone where I have to respect a good ball, back my ability and play for as long as I can. You are definitely going to get out, you just delay that. It is not that you can’t get out in sport and in cricket. You just have to try and delay that eventuality which as batsman we all try to achieve.”