South Africa collectively were a much better team than us, admits Virat Kohli

In the press conference after India lost the Centurion Test and the series 0-2, a livid Captain Virat Kohli came out to give a long, fiery press conference where he was bowled with some serious Yorkers by journalists which he tried to attack. In the process, he questioned not only the team but also counter-questioned the journalists who asked him questions about the bold, bizarre team selections, and the dismal batting and fielding performance of his side, as if meaning that an autopsy of the loss can be done by the captain alone.

Before both the matches, the Playing XI was awaited with as much excitement as the match itself. And after bizarre, surprising selections, the team management was heavily criticized for dropping Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the Centurion Test and ignoring Ajinkya Rahane yet again. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was one of India’s best performers in the first Test yet he warmed the bench. The chopping and cutting in the opening duo also raised questions.

On being asked if he though he made the best use of his resources, he said, “When something does not work, obviously it’s going to be spoken against. We are pretty used to that. We as a team don’t think of what the opinion going around is.”

“A lot was spoken about Bhuvi but (Mohammed) Shami performed in this game. So now no one is talking about that. It’s all about whoever goes out on the field and performs. We obviously look at the conditions and we decide as a management group and myself sitting together, that what is the best eleven that we can take on the field.

“And then we don’t sit back and think ‘Oh we could have done that or we should have done that’. You make one decision and you back it,” he said.

Lacking match practice?

India did not travel in advance to play warm-up games and while many pundits have cited this as a reason for India’s fall in this series, Kohli has a different opinion. It is important to note that Virat Kohli himself was upset after the Sri Lanka series about BCCI’s scheduling because the side hardly got any rest time before heading to South Africa.

“I don’t believe in that. We had a result in three days in Cape Town and we had no complaints. We enjoyed the pitch because we had an equal chance of winning the game there. We were not good enough to do that, that’s a different thing. It was not like we were outplayed. We had opportunities in both the games, and that’s probably the smallest positive that we can think of at this moment. We are not complaining about pitches, we are not complaining about conditions.”

South Africa the better team

It is easier to think now about who was in a better position to win the match by figuring out how both the sides did in all departments and which team had the most number of moments of brilliance throughout. Kohli, too, believes that South Africa were ahead of them in that regard, even though the Centurion pitch was more sub-continental than Protean.

“In Test cricket, it does not matter where you are playing. Teams have beaten us at home at times but these conditions (at Centurion) are something that we are used to playing at and we should have certainly done better than what have.

“South Africa collectively were a much better team than us regardless of pitches we played on. Their bowlers put relentless pressure on us. As a batting unit, after losing a few wickets, they would string in a partnership. They showed more character than us,” Kohli signed off.