Victorious skipper of team India, Virat Kohli, expressed his satisfaction at the 4-0 rout of England in the Test series. Praising the team’s all-round performance and ability to overcome challenges like injury to key players, Kohli described triple centurion Karun Nair as a lethal player of spin -- possibly the best player of the sweep shot in India currently.
He added that the current team management involving him and coach Anil Kumble were looking to bring in only those players in the senior side who looked ready for the part. K.L.Rahul and Nair belonged to that category. He expressed his happiness with the star of last day’s show -- Ravindra Jadeja, who spun England out by taking seven wickets in the second innings. Kohli praised his accuracy and tight fistedness with runs that helped create the right pressure for the Indian spin attack to thrive in.
Excerpts from his post match conference at Chepauk, Chennai:
Your assessment of Karun Nair the player
I haven’t seen him play too much first-class cricket. I’ve seen him play in the IPL against world-class bowlers. And he’s someone that who’s always showed character. He could pull the ball well. He used his feet, drove the ball well. He is very lethal against the spinners. I’ve not seen anyone, currently in India, sweep so well against spinners. He’s just the complete package.
It’s difficult to find guys like that – ones who have such character when they are batting and understand their game so well at such a young age. It’s important to back guys like Karun. He was always our No.1 choice as a middle-order back-up. Credit to him. The chance came, just the third innings and he’s done wonders to the team and wonders for himself as well. I congratulate him. He’s delivered what we expected him to. He exceeded our expectations. Everyone’s expectations. As I said, that shows his character – to understand the game fully at such a young age to understand his game fully. Hats off to him.
On Jadeja overcoming his reputation of bad-wicket bowler
You have to see the kind of balance he gives to the side. We don’t rely on Jadeja as a bad-wicket bowler, he is a perfect bowler in any conditions in Test cricket. He is accurate and that’s what you need in Test cricket. You don’t necessarily need to have too many variations at your disposal. His strength is bowling at nice pace, not giving too much air to the ball and making the batsman think about how long they can defend. On any wicket in the world, if you are bowling that accurately for a long time, invariably the batsman will make a mistake. That’s what we have always banked upon him.
Has Jadeja broken out of Ashwin’s shadow?
As a team, we don’t think that anyone is playing in Ashwin’s shadow. Everyone running in with the ball wants to take a wicket for team India. These comparisons are scenarios created in the outside world. Jadeja takes a lot of pride in his performance. Every time Ashwin has picked up wickets, the economy rate from the other end is not more than two. Ashwin will himself tell you that Jadeja has played a massive role, helping him make those breakthroughs because there is literally no runs from both ends. They bowled brilliantly in partnership for us this whole season.
I am really happy for Jadeja, especially with the bat. We have always believed he had the ability but he himself is realising it now. He prepared really well to go out and score crucial runs for the team.
On Indian Team management looking to bring in only ready players
We want players to be match ready when they join the Indian team. You shouldn’t be spending a year in international cricket just learning what to do. You lose a lot of time. And many players can’t face that pressure. But if you are prepared, if you are professional, if you know you have to work hard, if you know how to prepare for a game, you have a better chance of performing. Like K.L.Rahul. Like Karun Nair. You can see their performances for yourself. Especially Karun, who replacing a batsman like Ajinkya. He walked in and scored a triple-hundred. There couldn’t have been a bigger statement.
A satisfying series?
Yes, it's I would say its a complete performance, from the time we were put under pressure in the first game to come back and win the next four Test matches. We lost three tosses, four including Rajkot, and winning three games out of that is very satisfying. As a captain, I feel its a complete series for us. Everyone contributed at different times. The lower-order contribution is something that especially stands out for me in this series.
