New ICC regulations make things exciting, professional: Kohli

MUMBAI: India skipper Virat Kohli on Saturday said the new ODI playing rules will make the game more exciting and professional.

India will play its maiden series under the new ICC ODI regulations when it takes on New Zealand in the first ODI of the three-match series on Sunday.

"There are few rules which are very different. The batsman reaching the crease and after that the bat bouncing off being not out. The rule of umpires' call in DRS (Decision Review System). So there are few rule changes which are quite interesting. There is one about catching as well," Kohli said at the pre-match media conference today.

"So I think guys will need awareness about the new rules. They are always difficult to keep a check on initially, but I think we all will get used to it.

"But it's a good thing, new regulations will makes things much more exciting and bit more professional I guess. You have to keep in mind a lot of things while you are on the field and this just adds to that and helps you focus more on what needs to be done during the course of a game," Kohli added.

Among the new rules, a prominent change that will come into effect is that teams will no longer lose a review under DRS if a leg-before referral returns as "umpires' call".

With the change in the DRS rule on umpires' call, the current system that allows top-up of reviews after 80 overs in Test matches will be removed.

The ICC has also empowered umpires to send off players for misconduct, including violence. All other offences would continue to be dealt under the ICC Code of Conduct.

There would be restrictions on bat dimensions (thickness of edges and depth of bat). Besides, batsmen will not be deemed run out if the bat is in the air after crossing the crease.

The batsman is currently ruled out if the bat is not grounded when the stumps are disturbed.

According to Kohli, who is set to play his 200th ODI game on Sunday, rankings hardly matters for a cricket team.

"We don't think of rankings. Points are tied. We had a rest period, South Africa are playing games in that period, so you can't really pinpoint some things, you can't be frustrated sitting at home that your ranking is gone and stuff like that," said Kohli after India were dislodged from the top ICC ODI rankings by South Africa on rating points.

"We just want to play good cricket, we've been playing good cricket and that continues to be our main goal. We are really happy with what we are doing as a team at the moment. These things will go up and down because not all teams play together.

"As I said, even for batsmen you play at different stages, someone goes up in points someone doesn't. It doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, you have to contribute towards the team's win.

Rankings, ratings all these things are definitely incentives of doing well, but that's not the ultimate goal," he added.

The last two matches of the ODI series will be played at Pune on October 25 and Kanpur on October 29.

Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar's son Arjun, a budding left- arm pacer, again bowled to the Indian batsmen in the nets for the second consecutive day.

He was again seeing interacting with bowling coach Bharat Arun.