IND vs ENG | We are here to win and not just survive, says Virat Kohli as India win Oval Test by 157 runs

India captain Virat Kohli has hailed his team's character again and said that regardless of the situation, the boys play to win and not just survive. Notably, India on Monday took a 2-1 lead after beating England by 157 runs in the fourth match of the 5-Test series at The Oval. 

England were once again crusing at 100/0 but after the fall of their first wicket, in the form of Rory Burns, things turned south quite quickly for the Three Lions. Dawid Malan got run out, Haseeb Hameed was then trapped in the spin game by Ravindra Jadeja and then Jasprit Bumrah castled Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow in consecutive overs to push England completely out of the game. 

"Well, I think the best thing about both the games has been the character the team has showed. We are not looking to survive in this game, we are here to win. Really proud of the character the team has showed. It's quite relative what you call flat. The conditions were hot and we knew were in with an opportunity when Jadeja was bowling in the rough. The bowlers were good with the reverse swing today. We believed we could get all 10 wickets, we had the belief," Kohli said after the match. 

Bumrah asked for the ball as soon as it started to reverse 

Further, the 32-year-old, who has a glorious chance of becoming only the second Indian captain to win a series in England in the last three decades, revealed that Jasprit Bumrah (2/27) asked for a spell as soon as the ball started reversing. Kohli also lauded Shardul Thakur for "deflating" the opposition. The 29-year-old bowling all-rounder hit a fifty each in both the innings and also managed three wickets in the match. On Monday, he got the prized wickets of Rory Burns (50) and Joe Root (36).

"As soon as the ball started revering, Bumrah said give me the ball. He bowled that spell and swung the game in our favour with those two huge wickets. I think you pointed his performance. Rohit's innings was fantastic. What Shardul has done in this game stands out. His two fifties deflated the opposition. I think he batted well in both the innings. We never go towards analysis, statistics and numbers. We know what we need to focus on and we take a collective decision as a group," Kohli added. 

The final Test will be played from September 10 in Manchester.