Team India captain Virat Kohli has always been unperturbed with popular perceptions which makes him a special cricketer and despite being a very animated guy on the field, he is not really bothered at what others have to say about his batting or performance.
Kohli was going through a lean patch in the longest format of the game and had failed miserably during the four-match series against the Aussies but he showed his character with a well compiled century against Sri Lanka in the 2nd innings of the opening Test to regain his lost touch.
He conceded the fact he wasn’t looking at things from other’s point of view.
“I wasn’t looking at things from people’s point of view. I think people on the outside start counting the number of innings when a batsman doesn’t score well. But for us as batsmen or anyone playing in the eleven, it’s about what the team wants in that particular situation,” said Kohli at the post match press conference following India’s comprehensive victory by 304 runs.
“I think the second innings required us to play a bit more positively and I am glad I was able to do that along with Abhinav Mukund. It helped to get us enough time to get the opposition out and put enough runs on the board for us to feel comfortable.
“I mean I certainly wasn’t looking at how many innings I haven’t scored because when you are playing all formats you are not thinking which format you have not scored runs in how many innings. You cannot utilise so much energy in that but it always feels good to score runs especially when the team wins,” Kohli added.
Kohli conceded that though his team produced a clinical performance at Galle there was room for improvement.
“Yes, we would like to think we ticked all the boxes with this win. There are still some areas that we can look back and try to improve on. Especially when you get 4-5 wickets, we need to not let the lower order get away with a few runs in the latter half of the innings. It is something that we can identify and work on in the next two games as well.
“All in all, playing Test cricket after February when we played last, from then having played so much one-day cricket and not having the time to prepare so much in between I think it was good to get back in the groove and do the things that are supposed to be done to win a Test match,” Kohli concluded.
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