Virat Kohli : Long way to go to become one of India's greatest captains
Indian skipper Virat Kohli has responded to Sunil Gavaskar’s compliment by stating that the road to becoming one of India’s greatest captains is a long one. Kohli has also hailed the partnership between Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav, in the fourth ODI, despite their failure to finish off the game.
Virat Kohli has been a strong advocate of ruthless work ethics and even went as far as dropping a talented batsman like Sarfraz Khan for a mediocre Sachin Baby for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL for the same reason. The Indian skipper has imbibed the same ethics in the Indian team, which has become the most dominant side in the world cricket now. This prompted former skipper Sunil Gavaskar to call Kohli, who is only in the first year of full-time captaincy across all three formats of the game, as “one of India’s greatest captains”. Kohli, understandably, was happy by the compliment but stated that there is a long way to go to achieve the feat.
“It’s something we’ll feel good about because he’s seen many Indian teams over the past few years and to know that someone appreciates our skill and the way we are playing feels good, especially an Indian cricket legend. We are young. We are going to play for a while together. We are playing at home now, but if we can replicate this form in conditions that are alien to us, yes after that we can sit down and be happy with what we have done so far. At the moment, it’s about repeating those processes and trying to be consistent," Kohli said, in the post-match presentation ceremony in Bangalore.Â
Yesterday, Australia regained the control at the half-way stage in India's chase of 335 by dismissing Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane quickly before denying Kohli to time to set his eye in. Then the onus was on Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya to see off the run chase with India still needing 188 runs from 154 balls. Although the duo did well to hang around there for quite some time, they failed to take India home and as a result, India lost their first ODI in 10 games.Â
"When all of us had gotten out, when Hardik and Kedar were batting, we thought this was the ideal situation for them. To understand how the game can be taken
In the absence of the first-choice fast bowlers in the series - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah - India made a rusty start in Bangalore with Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. Lack of match practice showed in the starts made by the duo as David Warner and Aaron Finch made the most of them setting the base for a humongous total. That opening stand proved to be the major difference between both the team, but Kohli doesn’t have any regrets about that.
"We've won the series and you have to try guys out at some stage. You need to test your bench strength as well and you need to give those guys game time. I think Umesh bowled well, even Shami bowled well. Umesh even picked up four wickets and it would have been a bit more than what he would have expected himself.
"In hindsight, if you lose, I'm not someone who sits and thinks maybe I shouldn't have done this. You try, you go for