Kohli bats for aggressive approach in SA tour

Aggression has been the hallmark of his batting and India captain Virat Kohli feels his teammates will need to adopt a similar approach to produce results in their gruelling tour of South Africa up ahead.

Kohli was at his aggressive best in the just-concluded second Test against Sri Lanka as he smashed a strokeful 213 off 267 balls to help India amass a huge first innings total. Kohli's knock and centuries from Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma ensured that India had ample time in their hands to bowl Sri Lanka out for a massive innings and 239 runs win in the just-concluded Test here.

"I just wanted to bat the way I bat. Get into good positions and rotate strike and score quickly so our bowlers have time to bowl the opposition out," Kohli said at the postmatch presentation ceremony. "We will need that (approach) overseas so I was looking at doing that. "I always wanted to better myself in scoring big hundreds for the simple reason that the team benefits. When you lose concentration after a hundred, maybe two wickets can fall quickly. A set batsman can play shots easier than a new batsman so I started thinking in that way and my fitness helps me bat for longer periods," he added.

Pujara has been a consistent performer for India in Test matches, but it was heartening to see the return of Vijay and Rohit, both of whom smashed tons to give Kohli a happy selection headache for the upcoming matches. "Pujara we know, he's been very consistent. Vijay was playing after a while, he takes pride in playing Test cricket. I know it hurt him to be out and he came back really well. "Rohit as well, making a strong case for himself in the future. He will always be there when we speak about combinations. We have a lot f Test cricket coming up," said Kohli, who was effusive in his praise for the trio. The Indian skipper also had words of appreciation for his bowling unit, especially the pacers.