Series win, proper team effort: Kohli

Kohli was also happy that unlike some of the earlier occasions, “when the team failed to show character”, it was different with the bowlers responding effectively.

“This is a proper team series win. It wasn’t just one individual. You can leave Ash (Man of the Series Ravichandran Ashwin) aside, he is not to be mentioned in the XI. Jadeja with the bat in the first game, Saha with the bat in the second (Test), Rohit with those crucial knocks,” Kohli told at the psotmatch media coneference. 

In a lighter vein, Kohli said that Ashwin seems to have “lost count of his Man of the Series awards but the team is keeping a count of his achievements”. “We keenly follow his numbers, we discuss his Man of the Series awards after every series. No. 6, No 7. Credit to him I wish him well.”

What has pleased the Indian captain is the fact that every player is able to express himself. “We made it clear that the bowlers deserve to be in this position and it is time they express themselves. Don’t hesitate in playing your shots. If you see Pujara hitting a fast bowler back over his head, it is the best example of expressing yourself.” 

Ashwin said: “It was a wicket where you had to work hard, be patient. there was a little bit of help outside the off stump, in terms of footmarks. Second innings, they helped us out with their shots. The reason we were slow was because he wanted to get them driving. 

“There was not much bounce to get catches at short leg. I knew Boult was coming, and he’d give me footmarks, so I wanted them lunging out. I have to give special metion to Shami, Bhuvi and Umesh, they got us a lot of wickets with reverse swing and Jaddu is a perfect foil.”

Virat Kohli and the Indian cricket team received the ICC Test Championship mace as the No 1 team in the rankings after the series win.