‘KP’s arrival should turn things around’

“This year our batting looks good with Kevin (Pietersen) joining us. He is a big player and I am sure he will make a huge difference,” Virat says. “I have interacted with KP during the one-dayers against England and he will be a very good addition to the side.”

With New Zealand’s Jesse Ryder also joining in and Robin Uthappa swapping places with Zaheer Khan,Bangalore’s batting unit has plenty of firepower,starting from the top. “We have a couple of new faces in the team and I hope we gel better as a team this year,” Kohli adds.

After a mixed Ranji Trophy,the 20-year-old has got back to his scoring ways in the one-dayers. This change in fortunes,interestingly,has coincided with his drop from the national side. “It took me a week to get over the disappointment. But then I decided to enjoy my game and the runs started to flow. I didn’t change anything,” he says.

What did change,however,was the realisation that he was picked for Sri Lanka in 2008 only because a few big players were injured. “It’s tough to be dropped,especially since this was the first time I was dropped from any side at any level. But I also need to understand that these things happen. I was earlier picked because Sachin Tendulkar was injured and once he was fit,there was no way I was going to Sri Lanka. We are talking about big players and really there is no comparison.”