Focus on the scoreboard, not the crowd: Virat Kohli's advice to Jemimah, Mandhana

India batter Jemimah Rodrigues recalls meeting Virat Kohli along with Smriti Mandhana, wherein the former India skipper spoke to them about handling expectations.

Kohli and the India Women cricketers were put up in the same hotel in New Zealand a couple of years ago, when the former agreed to meet the Indian duo at a cafe nearby, where they chatted for four hours.

"Smriti and I had the opportunity to talk to him. We had asked him 'we want to speak to you Virat bhaiya about batting. Can we meet?'. We were in the same hotel in New Zealand. He was like 'yeah sure, come,' Rodrigues said on The Ranveer Show.

"So he called us at the cafe and Anushka Sharma was also there. We had asked him for just a few minutes but we ended up speaking for four hours. We spoke half an hour about batting but after that it was just normal things."

On handling expectations, Kohli said, "I asked him about how to handle expectations. I told him 'You are Virat Kohli. If you've scored a fifty, it's like you have underperformed for people. So how do you handle that expectation?'

"He said 'for me everytime I am out there on the field, I just look at the scoreboard and just focus on it. Do that and don't focus on crowd and what I can do to help India win. If I stop giving these expectations importance and just look at the process, the results will automatically follow'."

While Jemimah did not make the cut in India's World Cup squad, Mandhana is all set to open the innings with Shafali Verma at the mega event.

India will begin their World Cup campaign against arch-rival Pakistan on March 6.