cricket

Updated: Sep 03, 2019 10:21 IST

The Indian management reposed their faith in Hanuma Vihari ahead of Rohit Sharma for the middle order and the young batsman vindicated this faith by emerging as India’s best batsman in the series. This impressed the captain who spoke about his work ethic and temperament, and even said that young middle-order batsman’s self belief provides a sense of calm in the dressing room.

“Hanuma was the stand-out batsman in this game. According to the surface, it was a top-class innings from him,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony after India demolished West Indies by 257 runs to sweep the Test series 2-0 here on Monday.

“He is someone who is sure of his game and it shows. The dressing room feels calm when he’s batting. That’s a quality he possesses naturally.” Vihari’s willingness to learn from mistakes is also a quality that will take him places, feels the world’s best batsman.

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“He (Hanuma) is willing to improve. He accepts and corrects his mistakes and plays with a lot of heart. Always up to do anything for the team. It’s a very young career so far but he’s shown why he’s been backed and selected in this team,” Kohli said.

The skipper was happy in the manner India had achieved the victory in the second Test here.

“It was pretty comprehensive again. Played really good cricket over four days. Getting result in manner that you want is crucial. We were in some tricky situations. Took a lot of character from the boys collectively,” Kohli said.

Kohli, who won a record 28th Test as captain, attributed the success to the bowling unit.

“It’s a by-product of the quality team we have here (becoming the most successful Indian captain). If we didn’t have the bowlers we have, these results wouldn’t have been possible.

“If you see these guys running in - Shami’s spell today, Bumrah after having a small niggle, Ishant bowling his heart out, Jadeja bowling a long spell. Captaincy is just a C in front of your name. It’s the collective effort that matters,” he said. “For us, it’s just the start of the (World Test) Championship. Whatever’s happened in the past is irrelevant,” he said.

While West Indies batting was shoddy, Kohli rated their pace attack as top-class.

“West Indies would know the areas they need to improve on. From bowling point of view, they were outstanding. Jason (Holder) and Kemar (Roach) were the standout bowlers,” he said.

“Their bowling attack with the red ball here is as lethal as anyone. If they get enough runs on the board, they’ll be a very dangerous opposition in Test cricket.”

(With PTI inputs)