Bench, team culture reasons behind India success: Kohli

The two bowlers who won India the Test match at Lord’s in 2014, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, warmed the bench during the Sri Lanka series and still the team won in a canter. The depth of this team has been remarkable and India captain Virat Kohli said it was key to their dream run.

“I would like to believe that (bench strength) has been our strength in the last couple of years. That’s why we’ve been able to get the results that we have because we have played different players on different occasions but everyone has been fit and ready to come and do the job. Mostly we have played people depending on the conditions where we feel they will be most effective,” said Kohli after leading India to a 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka.

Another reason for their success was the team culture. “Culture can only be built when everyone buys into it. And the only way that can happen is when you don’t have any judgements (about) people coming in, if you don’t look at them with a critical eye or watch everything they are doing and trying to pick on small things… I think that is something that we have gotten rid of totally. In this team, we are more like a bunch of friends playing together rather than a senior or a junior. You can joke around with anyone inside the group and that is something that makes me feel proud of this particular unit,” Kohli stressed.

Asked if the 3-0 scoreline was a true reflection of how strong India are, the skipper said, “We won all three tosses. In the second Test we would have faced more pressure if we had not won the toss because of the way the wicket played from the second day onwards. ”

I would like to believe that (bench strength) has been our strength in the last couple of years.

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