The Indian test side has seen a lot of highs off late, under the inspiring leadership of Virat Kohli. Kohli has a touch of aggression to his style of leadership and he gives his players the much needed freedom, which in turn has instilled positive vibes within the team. The result of that is for everyone to see, as Kohli’s boys thrashed the South Africans 3-0 in the recently concluded test series. Kohli, post the game spoke about his style, and said that ranking do not matter to him.
The Indian skipper also spoke about the journey of transition of this inexperienced side. “Rankings do not matter to me neither do they matter to the particular squad right now,” he said. “Keep performing well, obviously rankings will go up. You don’t play for that. Obviously it’s an incentive, which we don’t aim for, but we want to play good cricket and be a good Test side. Rest of the things can follow. “It’s been couple of series, three series, I have been full-time captain. I have enjoyed it. I relish making plans with bowlers, and when it comes off, that particular feeling is hard to explain. I like the fact that I am always involved in things. Active. It fits me perfectly,” Kohli said.
“Test cricket has been one format where we all have wanted to do well,” Kohli said. “Like to give credit to the team to show character and bounce back in last two series like the way we have. I feel that it all began in Australia for us, the way we played there. We showed character even in defeats. They were not one-sided defeats. We were always on opposition’s heels, we felt that we could cash in on any stage. That gave us a lot of belief as a Test team. We can play well around the world,” Kohli added.
“We carried from Australia, took it to Sri Lanka, had a few plans, rules, things that we needed to do in order to do well and gave everyone responsibility that you have to give your 110% effort every single day. You are being honest to the work ethics, the team requires going out there to play the best cricket that one can play. Not focusing on opposition too much, not on what people were saying. We focused on our skills. The strong bond that team requires,” said an ecstatic Kohli.