Having led India to another heartwarming overseas victory at Trent Bridge, Indian Captain Virat Kohli has said that he is mighty impressed with the overall performance of the side.
Either side of Virat, who led from the front with a very crucial 97 in the first innings and then followed it up with a stellar 103, Ajinkya Rahane's 81, Hardik Pandya's 5-28, Cheteshwar Pujara's 72 and Jasprit Bumrah's 5-85 played substantial roles in India's magnificent and dominating win.
It was a very fine team effort too, with the others making their own small but very important contributions.
Virat after the win, was quoted saying at the post-match presentation as, "The victory was much-needed in this series and in context, and to have been clinical in all departments is a victory for the entire dressing room. A complete Test for us."
He also reiterated that, despite being losing a closely contested game at Edgbaston and losing heavily at Lord's, there were no negative feelings in his side coming into this game.
"There was no panic, and we were outplayed in only one game out of the last 5, and that was Lord's.", Virat said, "We dominated in this game because we put runs on the board and then the bowlers did well, they were waiting and ready, even Ashwin did well with his injury."
Virat also praised the bowling and slip-catching improvements that India showed. The Indian bowlers took all the 20 wickets and barring one of his own, there was no mistake made by the slip-cordon, where KL Rahul was simply brilliant.
He said, "The bowling group was ready to take 20 wickets again, and I'm glad the batsmen stepped up." and added, "So we, as batsmen, did well to give them a cushion for the bowlers to go hard. Even the slips did well, and this mix of all skills couldn't have come at a better time."
Virat, on behalf of the Indian Cricket Team, dedicated this win to the victims of floods in Kerala and expressed, "We, as a team, want to dedicate this win to the flood victims in Kerala. This is our bit we can do as the Indian cricket team. A tough time there."
On receiving the man of the match trophy for his excellence with the bat, Virat is pleased to have stitched very crucial partnerships across the match with Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara and is very satisfied having played his part in the win.
"The partnership between me and Ajinkya was crucial if you look back at the Test. Ajinkya was clear in his mindset in the first innings, and when he goes out and plays like that, he is attractive to watch and he can change the complexion of the game.", he said and added, "It was about getting stuck and not throwing our wickets away. They're a quality attack and you need grit and determination to score against them, and Ajinkya did that in the first innings and Pujara in the 2nd."
Virat has now well and truly put the ghost of the past to rest as far as his record in England is concerned. Having gone through a horrible series in 2014, where he scored just 134 runs, he is currently the leading run-getter of the ongoing series with 440 runs and still four possible innings to bat left.
When asked about this, he said, "I haven't thought about the 2014 failures, but I'd like to dedicate this to my wife who is here and keeps motivating me. She's copped a lot in the past but she deserves the credit for this one."
Virat is also quite optimistic of India's chances of making it 3-2 from now on and win the series.
"We want the opposition to bat well and get runs and we don't want to gift them any, we want to get rid of loose balls. They're getting into that kind of a mindset and getting Test runs should be difficult." he said in praise of the confidence inspiring Indian bowling attack and added in conclusion, "We definitely believe we can come back from 0-2 to 3-2, we just need to keep moving forward, keep winning. We wouldn't be 2-1 if we didn't believe. The respect and the belief in the change room is important, and one must keep wanting to win. We need to bring out the impact performances in the next two Tests as well."
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
