Skipper Virat Kohli termed India’s historic Test series triumph in Australia a “team effort.”
He said on Monday, “We strive to play well as a team. Single spells and single innings don’t win games of cricket, especially Test matches.
“We are so happy as a team, we cannot express it in words. This is my proudest moment.”
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India coach Ravi Shastri said, “This tour didn’t start in Australia. This tour started 12 months ago in South Africa, where we said there’s a certain brand of cricket that we are going to play, we will experiment with combinations, find out what suits the team the best and take it forward from there.
“We lost in South Africa and England but learnt from those mistakes to fire home here.”
Shastri said, “I will tell you how satisfying this win is for me. World Cup ’83, World Championship ’85. This is as big, or even bigger, because it is in the truest format of the game. It’s Test cricket, which is meant to be the toughest.”
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Kohli said, “I was part of 2011 World Cup team, but I didn’t have the emotion of not having been able to win a World Cup before, playing at home and winning it eventually.
“A lot of the senior players had that emotion. Yes, it was a great moment for me to be part of but if you ask me which moment is more emotional, I would say this one because this is my third tour here and I have seen how difficult it is to win here.”
Shastri said, “Today I can say I am proud of my boys and I can also tell them one thing which Virat touched in the presentation that this team now has an identity to look at any other Indian team from the past in the eye and say ‘We play proper Test match cricket. You did, we did too but without being intimidated.’”
Virat saw the triumph as a stepping stone for the next generation of Indian cricketers to be drawn to Test cricket and be passionate about it.
Praise for Pujara
Shastri appreciated Cheteshwar Pujara’s heroic performance in the series and said on a lighter note, “He should have collected the awards with his pads on.”
The Indian coach said, given his potential, Kuldeep Yadav could become a permanent fixture in the Indian team, both home and abroad.
India was now winning the big moments, Shastri said. “Taking wickets in Melbourne with Bumrah going through that spell when he was hot, these are the moments.”