Kohli: Wow. I didn't know that. Just feels good to get the first win on the board. Everyone was excited to play the game, we had enough practice and everyone was eager to get on with it. Scoring wasn't that easy initially, West Indies bowled well. Couple of their bowlers rushed the batsmen. With 5 batsmen and at 70-2, we had to take responsibility. Shikhar was batting very well. Ashwin as well, brilliant innings down the order. And to have someone like him getting a ton down the order is wonderful. With 5 batsmen, we had to deepen the order so we had Ashwin at six. He's pretty good at both. We had a look at the wicket, our initial thought was 3 spinners, but with the amount of grass on offer we decided for 3 pacers. Ishant was unlucky despite bowling well. Really happy for Shami who is coming after injury, he's a perfect Test bowler. Umesh is bowling well and Ishant is consistent as always. That's the challenge for modern day batsman, the change of format is so quick that you have to adapt. We have to be smart about it. Sandeep Patil asked me whether I felt like hitting a six during the innings, but with 5 batsmen you don't feel like hitting a six. I'm just happy to contribute to the win. Our aim is obviously to win every game. I think we have a good bowling combination, if they give us a drier wicket, we have the spinners.
Holder: They put a pretty good first innings total. Didn't bowl well in the first innings and it was a daunting task to chase something like 560. But there were some positives, Kraigg Brathwaite batted well. Obviously need to bowl better, build up some partnerships, string together some dot balls, build pressure. We'll see the conditions there and see what combination we can play. Not sure how the pitch will play. Normally there's a pretty flat pitch. Been hard to predict the conditions in the Caribbean of late. |
