India skipper Virat Kohli termed his team’s win over the West Indies in the first Test a “complete performance” and reserved special praise for Mohammed Shami, who marked his return to the five-day format after a long injury layoff with four first-innings wickets.
India stamped their authority as Ravichandran Ashwin returned impressive figures of 7/83 to bowl out the West Indies for 231 and notch up a record innings and 92-run win here today.
“Wow, I didn’t know that,” Kohli said when told that this was India’s biggest win outside Asia, before adding, “Just feels good to get a win on the board, always good to start well. Good prep time, for three weeks.
“Everyone was excited, we’d enough practice. It was a complete performance.”
Kohli emphasised on the need to score runs quickly to aim for a win.
“Scoring wasn’t easy, initially West Indies bowled well. A couple of their bowlers rushed us, 70-odd for 2 with five batsmen, had to take responsibility. Shikhar was playing really well and I wanted to be positive, if you want to win a Test you have to score quickly and get the bowlers a chance to bowl the opposition out twice.
“Then Ashwin played a brilliant innings down the order, it was a team batting performance. If we’re playing five batsmen, we wanted to deepen the order. We had Saha at No. 7 and Ashwin was good enough to bat at No. 6. He was a pure batsman before he became an offspinner.
“Always good to have someone who can do pretty well in both. Our initial thought was three spinners, but the amount of grass made us go with three quicks.
Regarding his seam bowlers, he said, “Ishant bowled well without luck. Shami and Umesh were outstanding. They way they bowled on a wicket like this, they rushed the batsmen. Someone like Shami, after surgery to come back and prove himself. He’s a perfect Test bowler, hits those perfect deliveries to get batsmen out.
