Virat Kohli on Khaleel Ahmed as the third seamer: “He has been outstanding”

Virat Kohli on Khaleel Ahmed as the third seamer: The Indian captain spoke about two key areas which India gained from the series.

During the fifth match of the ongoing Windies’ tour of India at Thiruvananthapuram, India defeated Windies by 9 wickets comprehensively. Having registered the victory, India have sealed the five-match series 3-1.

Chasing a paltry target of 105 runs, in-form Indian duo of vice-captain Rohit Sharma (63) and captain Virat Kohli (33) stitched a 99-run partnership for the second wicket. Top-scorer Sharma’s innings comprised of five fours and four sixes.

After Windies’ captain Jason Holder won the toss and chose to bat, Windies’ batsmen let his captain down as they were bundled out for 104 in 31.5 overs. Their innings never really got a going as Indian pacers made early inroads to their batting line-up.

Holder, who came in to bat at No. 6, top-scored for his team, scoring 25 (33) with the help of two fours. With bowling figures of 9.5-1-34-4, Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the Indian bowlers. Other than him, Jasprit Bumrah and Khaleel Ahmed picked up a couple of wickets each.

Kohli lauded his team for such a ‘clinical’ performance in this series. Speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar during the post-match presentation, he was quoted, “It turned out to be that way. It was a clinical performance. Credit has to go to the bowling unit, pitching the ball in the right place. We wanted to bowl first anyway and we got lucky. We were surprised West Indies batted. It was a good toss to lose.

“Both games, very professoinal performance. It’s always a good feeling when the team does well as a whole. The changeroom atmosphere is important and when you play like that everyone is delighted. We just want to keep building on this.”

On being asked about two key areas which India ticked during this series, Kohli pointed out the emergence of a third seamer and the No. 4 batsman. “Two areas I can think of is the third seamer, Khaleel has been outstanding and No. 4 as well, Rayudu taking responsibility.

“When Hardik [Pandya] comes in [after recovering from his injury], we’ll get more depth in the side. God forbid, if anything happens to Bhuvi or Bumrah, we have another guy who can come in and pick up wickets. We just want these guys to build on this,” he said.

Having scored 453 runs in five matches at an average of 151 and a strike rate of 112.96, Kohli was adjourned as the ‘Man of the Series’. On being asked about his own form, Kohli laid emphasis on ‘helping’ the team as much as possible and also talked about others who have performed in the series.

“The intent is to help the team as much as possible. Rohit was outstanding. Kuldeep picked up wickets. Bumrah too. But to get runs as captain always gives me confidence. It won’t happen all the time, but when I’m going, I want to keep going longer. I don’t play for awards, just to impact the series and help the team win,” Kohli further said.

Read some of the recent Twitter reactions on India’s win below: