NEW DELHI – A furious India captain Virat Kohli on Wednesday lost his cooland hit back at the reporters during a post-match conference after a135-run defeat against South Africa in the second Test at Centurion, hisfirst reverse as full-time skipper. During the conference, scribes onceagain raised questions on the player’s selection and the best playing XIKohlilink>could’vefielded during the Test match. “What is the best 11?” snapped Kohli whenasked if India played the best combination in ‘sub-continental’ conditionsat Centurion.
“If we had won this, was this the best 11? We don’t decide the 11 accordingto results. You are telling me that you could have played the best 11. Youtell me the best 11 and we will play that,” the skipper went on.
Many questions were raised over team selection when Rohit was picked overRahane in the first Test and Ishant was brought back into the team in placeof Bhuvneshwar. However, after much criticism, Kohli backed his playing XIas he said that whoever is picked, should be good enough to do the job forthe team.
“I am saying the loss obviously hurts but you make one decision and you gotto back it. We don’t sit here and say if you will fail in one game, you arenot good enough to be at this level. Didn’t we lose in India when we hadthe best 11 there?
“Whoever is picked should be good enough to do the job for the team. Thatis why we have got such a big squad. They are good enough to be at thislevel but you need to do that collectively as a team. You can’t pinpointand say which is the best 11. We have played with teams in the past whichhave looked really strong and lost.”
Kohli was next asked about the trend of fielding different teams in all theTest matches under him and whether the team was losing because of too muchchopping and changing.
“How many Test matches have we won out of 34? How many have we won? Howmany have we won? 21 wins (20 actually). Two losses. How many draws? Doesit matter? Wherever we play we try to do our best. I’m here to answer yourquestions, not to fight with you,” he countered.
India are ranked number one but post the loss, does Kohli believe theystill are the best?
“Look, we have to believe that we are the best side. Even when we camehere, if you don’t have the belief that you can win the series here, thereis no point coming here.
“We have not come here just to participate. And answering your question,how many times did South Africalink>comeinto the game in India?” he added.