Kolkata: Indian Cricket team captain,Virat Kohli, is a firm believer of the saying that a captain is only as good as his team. Kohli praised his bowlers for their commendable performance against a spirited Bangladesh side on what played out to be a flat track at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium at Hyderabad. Team India defeated Bangladesh by 208 runs in the one-off Test match which lasted five days. The win also took India’s unbeaten streak to 19 Tests, which is the 5th longest ever in the history of the game.
When asked about how much he had developed as a captain over the course of the 19 Tests that he had captained, Kohli said “Honestly it is the players that make you the captain that you become. To be very honest, anyone knows how to set fields in the ground, it’s just that you have to make sure that you take up the responsibility of keeping the energy of the team up.” “I look to push myself, throw myself around in the field so that other guys know that they also have to push for a wicket,” he elaborated.
When queried about the team’s bowling unit, Kohli seemed satisfied with his pace attack and lauded their contribution towards winning the game. “Very good. Credit to our bowlers, they were able to get result on this kind of a track. Considering that the wicket was very good to bat on, it took a bit of patience for us to get wickets during Bangladesh first innings. I thought Umesh (Yadav), Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and Ishant Sharma were brilliant in the first innings but Umesh stood out,” he said.
“In the second innings, all three bowled really well but Ishant stood out. I have said in the post-match that quality of our spinners allows our fast bowlers to attack because of the way spinners bowl and contain runs, the pacers can really attack as soon as it starts reverse swinging,” he added.
“I thought today Ishant’s spell was really good, he bowled with pace and had to put in effort to take wickets at that stage and he took both the set batsmen out. That was really good for us,” he added.
The captain led by example in the Test match by scoring a brisk double century in the first innings but emphasised on to how it was the team as a whole that made the difference. “We are playing as a team and that’s been the difference in this team, if you see, you can say probably 2016, I scored a lot of runs but before that in 2015 as well, we won a lot of matches. I didn’t score many runs but the other guys stepped up and scored runs, “he said.
“Ajinkya’s two tons in Delhi (vs South Africa) and second innings hundred in Sri Lanka, so there are quite a few instances, where all the members of the team have stepped up at some stage or the other. And that’s why we stand where we are and having that streak is not down to 2-3 people, it is a combined effort of all the guys.” he said. India plays host to the the mighty Aussies next in a 4 match test series.
(With inputs from PTI and Times of India)