Champions Trophy: Loss to Sri Lanka is not end of life, says Virat Kohli

London, June 9: India captain Virat Kohli is ready to move on from the defeat to Sri Lanka yesterday (June 8) and focus on the virtual quarter-final against South Africa on Sunday in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.

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At The Oval on Thursday, defending champions India were handed a 7-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka. Indian bowlers failed to defend 321. (Match scorecard)

Kohli supported his bowlers and said he would tell them to forget this as a "bad day" and life is not over following this loss. Indian bowlers managed to take only 1 wicket. The other two came via run outs.

"Well, nothing. It's like a batting collapse. When you collapse as a batting unit, you don't sit down and think of your life's over. You just move on and say it's a bad day. Forget about it. That's what," Kohli said when asked what he would tell his bowlers after the match.

He continued, "In a Test match, you have a lot to think about because the game goes on for five days. But I think in shorter format cricket, you have to forget it and move on because you're playing in three days time again, and we have to be fresh as a team. We have to get back into that same mindset and come out and try to do the same things again.

"If a team - as I said, if a team plays well, you have to take your hat off. People's perception - we can't sit here and think of what people are perceiving us to be or what people had expected of us as a team. We just wanted to play good cricket. If that's not fulfilled for us, it does not change the situation of the team. We still go in with the same mindset in the next game as well.

"We try to win every game that we play. That's why you play international cricket."

India need to win their final group game against South Africa on Sunday (June 11) to qualify for the knockout stage. However, if the match is washed out, India will progress with a superior net run rate.

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