Kohli commends ‘little contributions’ in series sweep

R Ashwin is busy piling up some scarcely believable numbers. He has now taken 20 five-fors in 39 Tests, he has more Man-of-the-Series awards than any other Indian, and is well on track to move from 200 to 300 in one season. In the Indore Test, the batsmen too finally piled on the runs, with captain Virat Kohli scoring a double-hundred, Ajinkya Rahane getting his personal best with 188, and Cheteshwar Pujara setting up the declaration with a century of his own. Kohli, though, wants to focus on the smaller contributions and the team effort, as opposed to individual achievements.

“It is a team sport, and it is played like a team sport,” Kohli said. “Those who write – praise or criticise – performances stand out only for them. In the team we know, for example, if a fast bowler runs in hard for four overs and gets only two wickets, that means a lot in a Test match. For me the most important points in this series were [Ravindra] Jadeja’s batting in the first Test, [Wriddiman] Saha’s batting in the second Test, and [Mohammed] Shami’s spell in the second Test. They matter a lot to the team. Obviously you feel good about big individual contributions, but we focus more on little contributions. Because the big ones …

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