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Kohli pleased with bowlers

Last Updated 24 August 2015, 19:18 IST

 Excited after tasting his first win as a skipper, Virat Kohli said he is mightily pleased to see his bowlers grab 20 wickets for the second straight time.

“I’m more pleased with the bowlers taking 20 wickets rather than guys getting hundreds,” said Kohli who captained the team for the fifth time.

“That’s usually been the case for a very long time to have someone getting the runs. The session we had in the first innings where we literally squeezed them was one of the best bowling sessions I’ve been part of with this Indian cricket team. In the past two years, that was easily our best bowling effort as a group, especially in terms of partnerships.

“I’m very happy to see the bowlers playing their roles and not getting desperate for wickets. If you look at Ishant’s spell today, the second spell he gave just five runs in four overs with two maidens. He was in no rush to go out and start taking wickets. He was just helping Ashwin to create more pressure by bowling those maidens from the other end. I think that’s the understanding they are creating amongst themselves. I’m really happy for them and in a game like today, we actually closed it of very convincingly. That actually gives them more confidence. Next time they go around, they will go with the belief they can take crucial wickets.”

Kohli, who is leading a young but reasonably experienced team, said he wants to create an expressive dressing room where opinions will be valued. “I want guys to be more expressive and I want guys to share their ideas with me. I want them to speak their mind because they are intelligent cricketers. For someone like (KL) Rahul, he’s young but so mature in getting those hundreds so early on in his career. For someone like (Murali) Vijay and Rohit (Sharma), they all know how to build an innings. You need intelligence for that. As a batsman you can observe others and get into his mind and guess what he might be thinking.

“So, its wonderful to have guys contributing towards one cause that is winning. By speaking their mind, some ideas strike me and that I might not be able to think about them because there is so much going on. So its always nice to get all the suggestions and work towards what might be helpful for a particular situation. That’s a conscious effort we’ve made so the guys feel more responsible and more involved in the game throughout.”

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(Published 24 August 2015, 19:18 IST)

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