India vs England | We could not put pressure on England at crucial stages, says Virat Kohli

09/12/2018

Virat Kohli reckons that the Indian team showed great character despite going down in the last Test at The Oval but added that the visitors failed to put pressure on England at crucial stages in the series. India were bowled out for 345 in the second innings as they lost the fifth Test by 118 runs.

Team India fell to a disheartening defeat in the fifth and final Test match in the recently five-match Test series against England, which brought an end to their UK tour as well. This was the first time that India have lost four Test matches in a series since they were beaten 4-0 in Australia back in 2012. India would be looking at the series as a great opportunity lost, but Virat Kohli chose to compliment the attitude the team played with that suggested his team showed a lot of heart.

The Indian skipper was adamant that despite going down by a scoreline of 4-1 against Joe Root & Co, the Indian team did put up a good performance across the length of the series. However, the 29-year-old also added that the series loss was because of India's failure to maintain pressure on the home team at crucial stages in the series.

"We created pressure, we were not able to hold that pressure for long enough with the bat and the ball. At crucial stages, we could not keep that pressure on for long, and that is why they took advantage of those situations better than us. We understand why this series has gone the way it has, to be honest, we don't see a massive-massive portion that we need to correct, because if you are competing in every game, and you have an upper hand in every game at some stage or the other, you are doing something right.

"They deserved to win because they played better than us, that is how we look at this series, we do not look at this series as something that makes us think we can't play in overseas conditions. Of course, we can play, but can we capitalize on the important moments better than the opposition? At the moment, no, we haven't done that, but in future, we want to do that, and that is the only way we win series," Kohli said in a post-match interview.

And the skipper couldn’t have said it better. In Birmingham and Southampton, the Indian bowlers let the young Sam Curran turn things around when they had England neck-deep in trouble. At The Oval, it was Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad, who got the home team back into the game and earned them a crucial win.

But Kohli looked to be optimistic over his team’s prospects in the near future as Ravi Shastri & Co. gear up for the upcoming series against Australia later this year after the Asia Cup.

"Our aim is to win series, not to win the odd Test match and be happy about it, we are definitely not happy about the way the series has gone, but the way we played cricket is something that, not me, no one in the change room, no one doubts even one per cent, because we played with the right attitude and the will to win every game that we played.

"The progress has been there. More importantly, we need to recognise when the situation is in our favour and how to solidify that situation even further, and make sure that the opposition cannot get back in to the game. We have given the advantage to the opposition rather than them brilliantly turning around a situation. And as I have mentioned in the past as well, we need to start series well, we can't warm-up in to a series because the first Test is always crucial, and we need to make sure we are in the right frame of mind to be able to do all the things right to strike first," the skipper added.

India vs England | We could not put pressure on England at crucial stages, says Virat Kohli

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