Kohli: Don’t require massive correction

He listed weaknesses aplenty but a combative India captain Virat Kohli insisted that neither is the 1-4 Test series loss to England all that hard to take nor does his side require any “massive” course correction. “We understand why this series has gone the way it has and we don’t see a massive-massive portion that we need to correct. If you are competing in every game, and you have an upper hand in every game at some stage or the other, you are doing something right,” said Kohli after the loss in the final Test.

The defeat in England added to the team’s poor statistics on foreign soil, a tour of South Africa earlier this year being another missed opportunity. “Not hard at all [to take these series’ defeats in South Africa and England] because what matters to me is the kind of attitude you play cricket with. We said at the end of the fourth game that we won’t throw in the towel and we didn’t,” he said.

Speaking about the many weaknesses of the team that lay thoroughly exposed, he said the inability to capitalise on positions of strength stood out. “We created pressure. We were not able to hold that pressure for long enough with the bat and the ball as well...they [England] took advantage of those situations better than us,” he said.

The captain was not particularly amused when questioned whether coach Ravi Shastri’s pre-match claim that this was the best touring Indian team in the last 15 years, was something he believed in. “We have to believe that, why not? What do you think?”

In response to an “I am not sure” from the questioning scribe, Kohli retorted, “That’s your opinion. Thank you very much.”

But he did acknowledge his side’s failure to get more out of the conditions, which England exploited to the hilt.

“We are not starting behind all the time you know and we have fought back in this series...we do not look at this series as something that makes us think we can’t play in overseas conditions... but can we capitalise on the important moments better than the opposition? At the moment, no, we haven’t done that,” he conceded.

“Our aim is to win series, not to win the odd Test and be happy about it. We are definitely not happy about the way the series has gone, but we played with the right attitude and with the will to win every game that we played,” said Kohli.

“Our aim is to win series, not to win the odd Test and be happy about it. We are definitely not happy about the way the series has gone, but we played with the right attitude”