It has become a habit for players from the Indian team to offer views on playing Test matches on under-prepared wickets and square turners. After winning his first home series as captain, Virat Kohli, spoke on the conditions, South Africa’s unbeaten away record, Ishant and Mishra’s contributions.
On the conditions:-
It is not a policy; it’s the conditions that you get in India, otherwise you will just play Test matches which will get you 500 runs in an innings. You don’t create bowlers like that, you don’t win Test matches like that. The key is to win Test matches. I have said this before, wherever you go to play in the world, you got to be prepared to face those conditions and tune your game accordingly.
On Amla and du Plessis putting up a fight:-
Today was a classic example of the two guys applying themselves. I don’t know why there is so much hype created around the issue. There are a lot of people writing a lot of things about the pitch, ‘it should not be like this’ or ‘it is turning too much’…people sitting somewhere else (in the world) are speaking about the pitch in India. I think it is just a matter of mindset where people are just giving their opinions and they are free to do so. I don’t feel that way, we have never complained when we had challenging conditions and won’t complain in the future either.
On losing away and winning at home:-
We have tried to improve our game, it is always a matter of us not having the technique or us not having the mental strength to cope with conditions away from home. But when these sorts of things happen, everybody starts talking about how it is an undue home advantage. In the last few years if you see the stats of any team they are dominated at home and that is how Test cricket has gone. Whoever has won away from home is the No. 1 or No. 2 side in the world. I think that takes a lot of character and that won’t happen every time. South Africa hadn’t lost in nine years and it is very hard to maintain that sort of record. Credit to them, they have not lost an away series for nine years, but I would give credit to our boys for putting equal amount of pressure in the course of these three Test matches and actually win the series. I don’t see anything more or less to it.
On Mishra and Ishant’s bowling:-
The effort from those two was as important as Ashwin or Jadeja’s throughout this Test match and Mohali as well. Mishra getting us those crucial breakthroughs, he has been very important for us as a bowling unit. At Mohali he got AB twice that’s a big wicket in the course of a Test match or a chase as well. Today he told me ‘I will get a wicket’ and in about three overs he got Hashim out. Ishant, as well, on a wicket that was tough, he really bowled his heart out. He was swinging the ball really well and he made good use of the reverse swing. He is one bowler who does reverse the ball very well;he has learnt that from our bowlers of the past and he is using it pretty well. So credit goes to Ishant and Mishra equally along with Jadeja and Ashwin for this victory today.
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