Ray Sportz Web Desk: Former India skipper Virat Kohli has always loved the Champions Trophy tournament as the eight perticipating teams always give their best to win the coveted title.

The Champions Trophy is taking place for the first time since 2017 when India lost the final to Pakistan.
India open their campaign against Bangladesh here on Thursday.

“The tournament is happening after a long time. I have always liked this tournament. It represents consistency as you have to be in the top 8 of the rankings (to qualify). The level of competition is always good,” Kohli told Star Sports.

Kohli, who has played three editions of the 50-over event in 2009, 2013 (when India won) and 2017, likened the tournament to the fast-paced T20 World Cup.

“In ODI format, it creates the pressure of a T20 World Cup. There also you have three or four games in the league stage. If you don’t start well, you are under pressure. The pressure is from the first game itself and that is why I like it, you have to be at your best from game one,” said the former India captain.

India will play their remaining league games against Pakistan on February 23 and New Zealand on March 2. While the tournament host is Pakistan, India will be playing all the games in Dubai as part of the event’s hybrid model.

Kohli will be aiming for a bagful of runs in the tournament after a tough Test tour of Australia. He was back amongst the runs in the preceding ODI series against England, scoring a half-century in the final game in Ahmedabad.

Ray Sportz Web Desk: India beat England by 142 runs in the third of the three match T20I series to clean-sweep the hosts 3-0. Earlier India has posted 356 runs on back of centuries from Shubman Gill (112) and half-centuries from Shreyas Iyer (78) and Virat Kohli (52). In the chase England were bundled out for 214 runs. All the bowlers used chipped in with wickets.

With the bat England did get off to a flying start adding 60 runs in 6.2 overs. However as many times in the series before once both the openers fell the rest of the batting fell apart. The spinners in the middle overs restricted the English batters by picking wickets and squeeze them with maiden overs.

Arshdeep Singh (2/33) who came in place of Mohammed Shami bowled well and Harshit Rana (2/31) who once again was taken for a few with the new ball did come back in the second spell and broke the spine of the England batting order by picking Jos Buttler.

Ray Sportz News Desk: After a successful Indian Premier League season with the bat, young sensation Riyan Parag is confident that soon he will get a call up for Team India. He is that much confident that the Rajasthan Royals middle order batter is saying that,”I am going to play for India no matter what”, it is extreme self belief in one’s own skill-set and abilities.

“At some point, you’ll have to take me, right? So that is my belief, I’m going to play for India. I don’t really care when,” Parag would sound bullish yet confident during his exclusive interaction with PTI.

No youngster has polarised opinions in a short span of time as the 22-year-old from Assam, who enjoyed a breakout IPL season with 573 runs at a strike-rate close to 150, coming in at No.4 for the Rajasthan Royals.

In five previous years of IPL, Riyan, a 2018 U-19 World Cup winner didn’t even enjoy a 200-run season and a vicious social media was more than unkind to a youngster who was making a transition from boyhood to manhood.

“When I was not scoring runs — I said this in an interview as well that I am going to play for India,” Parag said on the sidelines of a Red Bull Campus Cricket tournament here on Wednesday, a tournament he lauded for giving exposure to talented youngsters.

“That is me believing in myself. That is not me being arrogant. That is what my plan was with my dad , when I started playing cricket when I was like 10-years-old. We were going to play for India regardless of anything.”

There is a strong possibility that Riyan along with Abhishek Sharma and Harshit Rana will be picked for the tour of Zimbabwe.

“Whether it’s the next tour, whether it’s a tour in six months, whether it’s a tour in one year… I don’t really put my thought behind when I should play. That is the selector’s job, that is other people’s job,” Riyan said.