Basking in the glory of beating Australia at Melbourne and going 2-1 up in the Border-Gavaskar series, India captain Virat Kohli outlined his philosophy of winning overseas being an obsession.
“If you have to, or want to win a series away from home, it has to be an obsession,” Kohli said in the post-match press conference. “Once you are obsessed, changing your decisions according to opinions is not an option at all.”
A rain delay gave India a scare in the early part of the fifth day’s play but the irresistible Jasprit Bumrah and Ishant Sharma polished off the Australian tail in no time to hand the visitors a 137-run win.
Kohli spoke about backing his instincts despite seeing India crash to a heavy defeat in Perth. “Instinctively, if you have a gut feel about playing a particular shot or bowling a particular ball, inside – if you feel good about doing something in a particular Test match – you just follow that. You can’t follow for someone else.”
“I think that’s been the most important factor for us, that we haven’t changed our mindset regardless of who said what. Hats off to the whole team for sticking together, believing in themselves and being obsessed about getting results.”
Now, India are chasing their first-ever series win Down Under after unsuccessful Test tours to South Africa and England earlier this year. The final Test will be played in Sydney next year.
“It’s a great opportunity from the point of view that we always wanted to win a series away from home. Actually every series that you play. And the fact that the boys worked so hard to be here now.
“There is no looking back, this is the last Test of the series and you have to give everything that you have to win a series. And that was our goal from day one and that goal has not changed at all. There are definitely factors and incentives attached to this particular series but we are not focusing on that because our job is to get out there and get results and next Test is going to be another opportunity to win for Team India.”
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