“Focus is to take Indian Cricket Higher and Higher”: Virat Kohli after Extending Winning Streak

India marched on to another test victory against Bangladesh, beating them by an innings and 130 runs. With the victory, captain Virat Kohli now has the most number of innings wins as an Indian captain, surpassing MS Dhoni’s nine.

Talking about the team’s performance in the post match presentation, Kohli said: “I don’t really know what to say. Clinical performances all around. The team is playing really well. I can’t say something which people are not seeing on TV.”

Kohli went on to praise the pace attack, that has been influential in India’s recent victories. The pace trio of Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav picked up 15 out of the 20 wickets in Indore, with the Ravichandran Ashwin contributing with the other five.

“Fast bowlers are at the top of their game,” Kohli said. “It looks like a different pitch when they bowl. Right now, Jasprit is not a part of the attack. So, when he comes back it will be a one heck of an attack to counter. It’s a dream bowling combination for any skipper. Even the slip fielders are ready as they know the ball can come any over, having strong bowlers is the most important thing. The numbers and the records are there for everyone to see.”

With the victory, India’s home record became much more enviable. India have now won their sixth consecutive test match. This is their joint most number of wins in succession along with their victories under MS Dhoni.

Talking about their row of victories Kohli said: “Our focus is to take the Indian cricket higher and higher. The motivation and the intent is right and we don’t care about the numbers. The motivation has been right, the intent has been right and we are going to keep pushing in that direction. I know the importance of getting big scores, I took a lot of time so I wanted him to score big. So as a senior batsman I wanted to make sure that he stayed focused. I don’t want the guys to make the same mistakes that I made.”

India and Bangladesh have one more match in the series, with the second test a historic one. India will hosting and playing its first day and night test match with the pink ball at the Eden Gardens starting from the Friday, November 22.

“The pink ball does a lot early on, more than the red ball,” Kohli said. “The pink ball Test is going to be exciting. It’s going be a landmark event for Indian cricket and Indian Test cricket. The crowd over the last three days have been brilliant. It gives the players extra motivation to go out and put that extra effort.”