Kohli's stunning admission after historic 2-1 Border-Gavaskar series victory over Australia
Indian skipper Virat Kohli has declared his side’s first ever series win in Australia is ‘by far’ the biggest achievement of his glittering career.
The gloomy conditions at the SCG reflected the state of Australian cricket, as India wrapped up its first Test series victory down under on a washed-out day five of the fourth Test.
No play was possible on the final day as light rain and heavy cloud persisted through the entire morning and into the afternoon, and with no result on the horizon the decision was made to call the match off just after 2:30pm local time.
It means India wins the series 2-1, retaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy and ending a drought that dates back to their first tour of Australia in 1947.
India claim Border-Gavaskar series Getty
When asked if this was the biggest achievement of his career, Kohli was in no doubt.
“By far,” the Indian skipper said.
“It has to be at the top of the pile. When we won the World Cup in 2011 I was the youngest member of the side. I saw all the people getting emotional but I didn’t really feel what they felt.
“Having been to this country three times now, and to understand that what we’ve done has never been done before, is something that we can really be proud of.”
Kohli admitted he’s “never been more proud to be a part of a team than this one,” singling out man of the series Cheteshwar Pujara as the backbone of the Indian side.
India claim Border-Gavaskar series Getty
“He’s been outstanding, especially after the kind of series he had last time he came here.
“He takes everything in his stride, and he’s the nicest man around, so we all feel very happy for him.”
With Australia’s under-fire batting lineup going through a four match home series without a century for the first time ever, captain Tim Paine is under no illusions that the road ahead is smooth, indicating there’s plenty
of batsmen on the fringes of selection pushing for a spot.
“The message is to keep scoring runs, that’s the currency in cricket,” Paine said.
“We know as a playing group we need to get better, we’ve got guys outside of this group putting pressure on as well, which is a good thing.
”Through the doom and gloom there’s some positives to come out of this period, and our group are under illusions, we’ve got to keep working really hard and improving.
