After having led India to a record-breaking victory over England in the fifth Test, Virat Kohli was a satisfied man, although understandably, a bit tired looking. He fielded questions from the media after the Indian team completed a mammoth innings win and clinched the series 4-0. Here are the excerpts:
On India playing a competitive game in Tests
The kind of cricket we play as a side, we play for results and that is what the crowds want to see: Test matches getting to a conclusion and not ending in draws, and if ending in draws, ending in competitive ones. That’s why so many people want to see the Indian team play, because they know what they are going to get. It is going to be played with the vision to win. That is what the crowd wants. That is how the connect is made.
On the bench strength performing
As the quality of the game improves, we want the infrastructure to improve as well. Whoever comes in the team knows that there is a certain benchmark of performance, and the mindset needs to be same.
We want the players who come in the Indian team to be match-ready, they shouldn’t be around for a year and still be learning. It takes a lot of time, and some players cannot handle the pressure. KL Rahul and Karun Nair came straight into the team and performed. Nair especially, you can see what he did by coming and replacing Ajinkya Rahane.
Nair couldn’t have given a better statement for himself. It shows that the upcoming generation is going to be smarter and learn from others: they know what has to be done. I get surprised that they catch things so quickly and are very smart. It shows on the field.
On why Ravindra Jadeja is special
We don’t feel as a team like that he is playing under Ashwin’s shadow. Everyone is running in with the ball and wants to take a wicket for the Indian team. These comparisons and scenarios are created from the outside world - we don’t focus too much on it.
Jadeja takes pride in his bowling. If you see, every time Ashwin has picked up wickets, the economy rate from the other end has not been more than two. Ashwin will tell you himself that Jadeja has played a massive role in him picking wickets. They have bowled brilliantly in partnership.
As a batsman, he always had the ability - he himself is realising it now. He has the ability to score those crucial runs for the team and he has been able to do that. The biggest plus has been his batting.
On what made him wait for 20 overs before giving the ball to Jadeja, despite there being a leg-side rough
We tried and created a lot of chances. If you have a decent rough in front of you and two left-handers are batting, you invariably give it to the off-spinner because he can get the ball to spin in front of the stumps. Ashwin created those opportunities for us. After that, it was a case of the wicket slowing down. That’s the time we got Jadeja, We tried Amit Mishra as well, but needed the extra pace. It is all about figuring out if the wicket is doing nicely, and where you can pitch the ball. It takes some time: you can’t rush into decisions.
On Alastair Cook and whether he should give up the captaincy
I am not in the right place to answer that. I understand the emotions they are going through. He’s been captain long enough to understand what his mindset is and what is going through his head. We’ve gone through that ourselves. If you win two tosses and score more than 400 runs and still lose by an innings, it is deflating. It is never easy for the team.
On captaining Jadeja, who was described as a bad pitch bowler
You have to see what kinds of balance he gives to the side. He’s a perfect bowler for any condition. He’s accurate, and you don’t always need to have lots of variations if you have nice pace and you make the batsman think about how long they can defend. That is his strength on any wicket. If he bowls that line, the batsman will invariably make a mistake. When he does really well, the questions start coming on his performance. He’s someone who provides balance to the team.
On ticking all the boxes in this series
It’s a complete performance. Coming from behind, we lost four tosses, and winning three games was satisfying. The lower order contributions were really nice. Everyone contributed at different times.
On the decision to hold back the declaration
It is a tricky situation to give yourself 20 overs when they haven’t bowled you out in almost 200 overs. It’s like, this guy is close to 300, it doesn’t happen every day. It’s not that he is taking ten overs to do it. He was hitting sixes and fours, for a bigger lead. It was a perfect scenario where got us to a stage where we didn’t have batted again and at the same time we had enough overs. If we have five bowlers, we should knock the teams off in 90+ overs, and that’s exactly what we did. The good thing was Nair stepped it up and didn’t take it long.
It is a very unpredictable game - nothing is happening, and then suddenly wickets fall and you are about to lose a game, and that’s exactly what happened today.
I haven’t seen too much of Karun in first-class but I have seen him play the IPL against world class bowlers and he is someone who always shows character. He could pull the ball well, use his feet, drive the ball well at No.3 when the ball is swinging. Against spinners, he is lethal. I have never seen a batsman currently in India sweep so well against the spinners. He is a complete package and it is very difficult to find players who are
He was always our No.1 choice as a middle order backup. When the chance did come, he has done wonders. He has delivered and exceeded our expectations.
On the year 2016 in review
As a team, we have had a great 2016, apart from two setbacks I can point out: the one-day series in Australia and the World T20. We won the Asia Cup and all the Test series.It was a memorable year, something we can be very proud of. To be part of this side, that too during the transition period is something really great. We have made a foundation for lot many years. It is not a tiny bit of what we want to achieve.
Also read: Ravichandran Ashwin ruled out of Ranji Trophy QF against Karnataka
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