Kohli: Kuldeep is a great talent

Consistent success emanating from team-strength and camaraderie within the ranks, is a template that Virat Kohli swears by in most press conferences.

Virat Kohli holds the winners trophy after India’s win over Sri Lanka in the third and final Test at in Pallekele. - AP

Consistent success emanating from team-strength and camaraderie within the ranks, is a template that Virat Kohli swears by in most press conferences. After the dust settled at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and the sprinklers came on, Kohli was at it again. A happy Indian skipper spoke to the media after winning the Test series here on Monday.

Excerpts

Good cricket

We played good cricket. We won all three tosses and looking at the nature of the pitches that was a massive factor as well. We put constant pressure on the opposition to make sure we won more sessions and that has led us to win this series with a clean sweep.

The mindset

We want to consolidate every situation, we want to make sure that we are correcting things along the journey and that's the mindset we want to take forward. You can't raise or lower your intensity according to your opposition because that I feel is disrespecting the sport.

Pace duo

(Mohammed) Shami and Umesh (Yadav) have done well in the last home season as well, with the new and old ball. That’s the reason we backed them in this series. It’s great to see them still bowling with a lot of heart and putting in that effort. I certainly rate Shami among the top-three (fast bowlers among the world) for sure.

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Pandya and the chinaman

A guy (Hardik Pandya) who can get a fifty and a hundred in his first three games batting at number eight has to have something special in him. The innings he played here, after being 320/6, wasn't just mad slogging. He used his brain and batted with the tail which is a great sign. He brings in great balance, is a gun fielder and gives you break-throughs. Inside the team we have 120% faith in him. Kuldeep is a great talent. We believe in him and he has delivered both times he played.

Friends succeed together

We are more like a bunch of friends playing together rather than being senior or junior. We don’t even think of the number of games an X has played or a Y has played within the change-room. We have embraced each other and accepted each other with our different personalities and that is the reason why people coming in feel like they don’t have to do anything different from what they know already.