Kohli leads India to first Test series win in Australia breaking a 71-year drought
Virat Kohli hopes India’s first Test series triumph in Australia will revive enthusiasm for the five-day game back home.
A draw in the fourth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday gave Kohli’s side a 2-1 victory and broke a 71-year cycle of unsuccessful tours down under.
The game’s longest format has taken something of a backseat in India in recent years due to the popularity of the lucrative Indian Premier League, but Kohli hopes victory in Australia will change that and inspire a generation of young cricketers.
“I see this series as a stepping stone for this team to inspire the next lot of Test cricketers,” he told reporters.
“To be passionate for Test cricket firstly. When Indian cricket respects Test cricket we know the fans are going to come in and watch Test cricket.
“In a world where a lot of people want the easy stuff, matches that finish in the evening, I think it is important to spread that message of Test cricket.
“We definitely want to build on this and always promote the message of Test cricket being the most important and the most valued format of the game, which it rightfully is.
“From where I see this is our vision for Indian cricket.”
Few players typify the longform cricketer more than batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who has eschewed shorter formats to fine tune his Test game and received his reward in Australia with three centuries and 521 runs. However, it was the manof-the-series Pujara that Kohli chose to laud for India’s success but seamers Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah.
“If your fast bowlers are happy and fighting as a team, you can win anywhere in the world and you have a chance to beat any side in the world anywhere,” he said. “In the past 12 months I would rate their contribution as far above all the batsmen that have contributed this season.”.
The lessons learnt from series defeats in South Africa and England had laid the groundwork for the success in Australia, he said, and the failures on those tours had inspired India to the top of the Test rankings. Kohli said he rated the series win in Australia even higher than winning the 2011 World Cup on home soil.
“It is definitely more special purely because of the fact that we have really badly wanted to win a series away from home,” he added.
“So having stuck to our tasks and executed what we wanted and having got the result we, as a team, feel complete.”
For our podcast on the Australia-India Test series, visit thenational.ae/sport