Indian captain Virat Kohli on Sunday criticised the scheduling of his team’s first two matches in the ICC T20 World Cup here, saying that spreading the games over more than a week was “ridiculous”. India, who are taking on New Zealand in a vital match this evening, played their tournament opener on October 24 against arch-rivals Pakistan, exactly seven days ago. “It’s ridiculous, we are playing twice in 10 days. Too long a break…,” Kohli said at the toss ahead of their match against New Zealand. Interestingly, after the 10-wicket loss to Pakistan, the star batter had stated that the break works well for the side given that players were coming off a high-intensity IPL.

“I think it works really well for us from all point of views. Knowing that we have played a full-fledged season already, we played the IPL, which is very high octane by itself in testing conditions here in the UAE, and then we come into the World Cup” Kohli had said.

“So for us, these big breaks are definitely something that’s going to help us as a team to be in the prime physical condition that we need to be to play this high intensity tournament,” he had gone on to add.

On Sunday, his view changed but he acknowledged that the long break helped his players recover from niggles and other minor injuries.

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“Yeah, the guys have recovered well. Had good practice sessions, are itching to go out on the field, which is a good thing. When you have so many days off you want to get on the park and get into the groove,” Kohli added.

After their fixture against New Zealand, India are scheduled to play Afghanistan on November 3, Scotland on November 5 and Namibia on November 8, which will wind up the league stage of the T20 showpiece.