Captain Kohli keeps team first, gives credit to teammates for test win against Bangladesh

Kohli surpasses Azharuddin to become the third most successful Indian captain in tests

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Indian cricketers celebrate after winning the one-off Test against Bangladesg | Image: ICC

Debasis Sen, Hyderabad: Indian captain Virat Kohli lauded the efforts of his team-mates for the 208 runs win against Bangladesh in the one-off test at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here.

Kohli on Monday got past Mohammad Azharuddin to become the third most successful Indian captain as far as test wins is concerned. Kohli now has 15 wins under his belt as captain. Only Mahendra Singh Dhoni (27 wins) and Sourav Ganguly (21 wins) is ahead of him.

Kohli also extended his unbeaten run to 19 test matches as captain. He is yet to lose a series as Test captain. In the current home season, he has led the team to victories over New Zealand (3-0), England (4-0) and now against Bangladesh (1-0). India next host Australia in a 4-Test sereis starting in Pune on February 23.

A believer of the old adage that a captain is only as good as his team, Virat Kohli lauded the effort of his bowlers on a flat track against a spirited Bangladesh side.

“Honestly it is the players that make you the captain that you become. To be very honest, anyone knows how to set fields in the ground, it’s just that you have to make sure that you take up the responsibility of keeping the energy of the team up,” said Kohli after the win.

“I look to push myself, throw myself around in the field so that other guys know that they also have to push for a wicket.”

“The bowlers know what they need to do but the fielders within the ring need to support the bowlers. I need to do that first, for the guys to show that energy. I have been able to maintain that and that has been a takeaway from the games that I have been captain so far. Lot of times, you know that there is only so much that you can do as a captain,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference.

The Indian captain is pleased to see the lion hearted effort of his fast bowlers on a track like the one at Rajiv Gandhi stadium.

“It was a very good performance from the bowlers. Credit to our bowlers, they were able to get result on this kind of a track. Considering that the wicket was very good to bat on, it took a bit of patience for us to get wickets during Bangladesh first innings. I thought Umesh (Yadav), Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and Ishant Sharma was brilliant in the first innings but Umesh stood out,” he said.

Virat particularly praised Ishant’s spell today. According to Kohli, “In the second innings, all three bowled really well but Ishant stood out. I have said in the post-match that quality of our spinners allows our fast bowlers to attack because of the way spinners bowl and contain runs; the pacers can really attack as soon as it starts reverse swinging.”
“I thought today Ishant’s spell was really good, he bowled with pace and had to put in effort to take wickets at that stage and he took both the set batsmen out. That was really good for us,” he added.

Talking about his 19-match unbeaten streak as a captain, Kohli said: “I don’t think it’s because of me. I mean everyone at the international level wants to do well.

“We are playing as a team and that’s been the difference in this team, if you see, you can say probably 2016, I scored a lot of runs but before that in 2015 as well, we won a lot of matches. I didn’t score many runs but the other guys stepped up and scored runs.

“Ajinkya’s two tons in Delhi (vs South Africa) and second innings hundred in Sri Lanka, so there are quite a few instances, where all the members of the team have stepped up at some stage or the other. And that’s why we stand where we are and having that streak is not down to 2-3 people, it is a combined effort of all the guys.