India skipper Virat Kohli today said the critics now can not question his team’s ability to force a draw from tough situations as he dug his heels and led the side to a draw in the series-opener, here today.
Kohli played a fighting unbeaten 49-run knock and together with Ravindra Jadeja (32) ensured that the team come out unscathed.
“Well, at least we know how to draw games now. Before that, some people obviously were skeptical about our side knowing how to draw games. We won games or we lost games.
“I spoke with Ravindra Jadeja out there that it was an opportunity for both of us to improve on another aspect of the game. Maybe in Test cricket in the future, we will have this situation again. Maybe we will have to apply ourselves again and show character, show intent to get runs in between, but play percentage cricket, figuring out areas where you want to take ones or hit boundaries but at the same time be sure of your defense as well. It was a challenging situation but one that we counted really well,” Kohli said.
“It is important to convince yourself you can negotiate what’s thrown at you. We could have been much better on days one and two. We dropped five catches and that makes a huge difference in Test cricket,” he added, talking about India’s fielding troubles.
He also made it clear that he was surprised to see the tinge of green on the track: “I was quite surprised to see that much grass, to be honest. It should not have been the case.”
Kohli was in a reflective but prickly mood as well. He got annoyed when asked whether the visiting team’s spinners out-performed the Indian trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Jadeja and Amit Mishra.
“I don’t think so. They bowled well but it’s not that they outperformed our spinners. It’s not that they took five-for and totally turned around the game. They should have won the game if they outperformed our spinners,” he said curtly.