"Ajinkya Rahane has always brought up great ideas" - Virat Kohli

The skipper of Team India Virat Kohli has joined the squad ahead of the second and final Test against New Zealand in Mumbai. The second Test match is scheduled to kick start on 3rd December, Friday.

Kohli backed the stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane who took charge in his absence during the Kanpur Test. He also lauded the New Zealand players Ajaz Patel and Rachin Ravindra who survived those 52 balls against the spin trio Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. In a virtual interaction ahead of the Mumbai Test, Kohli said, "I watched the game and I think we tried everything we could as a team."

"Obviously, everyone has a different way of approaching things. I probably would have been able to answer that if I was in that situation but I was not so I know that the team tried everything that they could and Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane) has always brought up great ideas to make sure that, you know, we put the opposition under pressure with strategy, with field placings and rotating the bowlers as well. A great example of that was in Australia as well when we played (there)," Kohli was quoted as saying in CricTracker. 

"Sometimes when you are not able to pull off a result you also have to give credit to the opposition for batting out 10-12 overs in the end with the last wicket. It was a very good effort from them," he added.

"So, we have to be realistic about the scenario, realistic about the situation. Obviously, you look to improve on things you still can and you find ways of winning and that’s been the essence of our team regardless of who’s been in charge.

I think that has become the culture of this team and we’ll continue to look to find opportunities to put our team in a winning position whenever we can and sometimes it doesn’t happen and you have to accept that," he stated.