Virat Kohli and Co. registered a Test win at The Oval for the first time after 1971.
Former England cricketer David Gower was the latest to praise Kohli for his captaincy as he also went on to hail the right-handed batsman for maintaining a positive atmosphere in the dressing room and scoring a big win not only for his team but also for his leadership.
“In a game with so many ebbs and flows, one of the trickiest things as captain is what goes on in the dressing room - people don’t see this. It’s all about the atmosphere in that room. Is it a confident room? Is it a comfortable room? Is it a determined room? Is it a relaxed room? All these things come in,” Gower told Cricket.com.
“He (Kohli) seems to be enjoying himself, he seems to be relaxed. And that is one of the most important jobs as a captain - to help create the atmosphere in the room. So when India compiled that 466 in the second innings, that atmosphere must have been important. That performance on the final day. To have that result in the bag so definitively is a big tick for Kohli’s captaincy,” he added.
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Even though a lot of fans and experts were disappointed after not seeing the ace off-spinner R Ashwin in the Indian XI, the 64-year-old pointed out an irony from the last game where all-rounder Shardul Thakur scored some vital runs and proved his mettle with the bat.
“The big irony about the whole game is that we were talking about Ashwin. But Shardul comes in and smashes it all around the park - wasn’t a big total but it was a much better total than what it might have been. That shot that Moeen played,” the former England cricketer said.
“It was not what the situation demanded. The situation demanded something different. The situation needed Moeen to get another 20-30, that would have changed the balance of the game,” the left-hand batsman concluded.
With the Indian team taking an unbeatable 2-1 lead in this ongoing Test series with the final Test match to go, it will be interesting to see whether the tourists take the series or do the home team replicates their Leeds performance to level the series at Old Trafford, when the fifth Test begins from September 10.
(With Cricket.com Inputs)