Indian men’s cricket team captain Virat Kohli on Thursday jokingly said that the cricketers are getting closer to directly land at the stadiums owing to their tight international schedule.

Kohli was speaking to the reporters ahead of the first Twenty-20 International (T20I) on the tour of New Zealand in less than a week after beating Australia at home. He also said it was tough to adjust to the time period of different regions in such a short span of time.

Courtesy of their jampacked calendar, in the last six month or so, India have played 14 T20Is, nine One Day Internationals (ODIs) and seven Test matches.

“Well it’s definitely getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium and playing straight. That’s how compressed the game has become but I think this kind of travel and coming to a place, which is seven hours ahead of India time, is always difficult to adjust to immediately,” Kohli tol reporters in Auckland, the venue of the opening T20I, as quoted by PTI.

“So, I am sure these things will be taken into consideration much more in the future, yeah it is what it is, you can do whatever you can to get better and get on the park again, and that’s international cricket for you today, it is back to back,” he said.

However, the 31-year-old also said that touring New Zealand was much more relaxing and less overwhelming than other countries as cricketers don’t tend to have a larger-than-life image here.

“Any New Zealand tour is much more relaxed. Every tour is a representation of how people look at the game in that region and in New Zealand the game is looked at as a job for the guys that play the game,” he said.

Earlier, Kohli said that as a leader his focus is not on the results but to take the legacy of the team forward as he iterated that results don’t determine the quality of a leader.

“One thing that I have done is I just focus on what I can do for the team and the vision that needs to be there to take the team forward,” Kohli was quoted as saying by IANS via stuff.co.nz.

India and New Zealand play the first T20I of the five-match series at the Eden Park in Auckland on January 24. The T20Is will be followed by a three-match ODI series and two Tests.