#INDvAUS: Kohli reveals why he sledged Warner, differs with Smith on one issue

India captain Virat Kohli said at the end of the drawn third Test here on Monday that he was pleased with his players’ efforts, particularly Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha and Ravindra Jadeja, to have taken the team to a position from where they believed they could win.

Here are the excerpts from his interaction with the media after the match:

On whether he agreed with Steve Smith saying that the momentum was with Australia after the draw:

Everyone has to take responsibility equally on the field and our players want to do that. Conditions were such in the first innings that it wasn’t easy for the bowlers, the pitch was very good. It played very well in the first two innings. In the second innings, they batted well, so it ended in a draw. With 451 being the Australian score, and we were 328/6, from there to make 600 was a very difficult task. We put ourselves in a position to win, so we feel it was a very good effort to get into a winning situation. But then again, if you are playing against the No. 2 side, you will expect that they will come out and fight, not just roll over. Everyone has his point of view. We will look at our positives and we are happy with where we brought the game to after just one innings. We didn’t need to bat in the second innings. But they had to play for a draw. Like I said, they will look at their positives, and move forward. There is still one match to go, both will give it their best.
 
On whether the pitch surprised him:

The wicket didn’t disappoint us. Obviously, the way the wicket is expected to break on days three, four and five, it happened but I think the hardness of the ball was a very big factor. Yesterday evening (Sunday), when the ball was hard, it was turning a lot fast, even this morning (Monday) it was doing so but in the second session it was not so hard, so to generate pace off the wicket becomes difficult for a bowler. When you get to the fifth day, as it is the pace becomes less. After that, we tried with the second new ball, got a couple of wickets but in the middle session, the hardness of the ball was a factor. But I don’t want to take any credit away from their effort. They batted very well. Four down by lunch, and after that they didn’t lose a wicket in the entire session. So, credit to them. When someone plays well, you have to give them credit, we understand that. But we are also very happy with our efforts. Jadeja’s bowling was outstanding in this match. All the bowlers bowled very well but Jadeja in my opinion was standout. If you look at his economy, on this pitch it was high-class bowling and showed why he is the joint No. 1 bowler alongside Ashwin.

On the evolution of Pujara:

You know, sometimes I really bad for him, people don’t understand his importance so much in this team and what a valuable player he is for us. He is the most composed player we have in the team, he is willing to grind for his runs, he doesn’t mind batting under pressure, he likes to take a challenge of batting. So, someone like that is priceless to have in the team. When the pressure situation comes up, he is someone who will put his hand up and play long for the team and hold up one end which I think is a great quality in him. This season, he has been outstanding, I don’t know the number of runs he has scored but he has contributed throughout (the season). He has not been spoken about much or has been in the focus too much but he deserves much more than that. People need to stand up and take notice of what he has done this season, he has been outstanding with the bat and hopefully he will continue that in the last Test.
 
On not bowling Ashwin too much, any injury or just part of plan?

No, there’s nothing wrong with Ashwin, there are no problems as such. You obviously want to choose ends – fast bowlers from the northern end were more effective and the spinners were more effective from the southern end. Obviously, we have to understand where the game is placed, and what bowlers you want to use. Whenever Jadeja came on to bowl, he picked up a wicket every two-three overs. It was very difficult to change him at that stage because he was bowling in good momentum. So, I think, that was one of the factors. In the second innings, he bowled quite a few overs, we bowled him from both ends. It was difficult for the bowlers to generate much from the pitch. You can leave Jadeja aside in this game because he really stood apart among all the bowlers. But I think in general the bowlers found it quite difficult to make things happen from the centre of the wicket. The key was to keep trying and that’s what Ashwin does always and put his best efforts in both the innings.
 
On managing the workloads of Ashwin and Jadeja:

We have got to see how many games we want to play them in terms of shorter formats and going forward if we have a hectic season because they are a very valuable Test bowlers for us. That is the only way you can manage workloads because during a game, you can't think of the fact that he bowled 3,000 balls in the season and I need to make him stop because if you want to win a game, you need to push guys. So, I think it is different formats when they arrive. That is where you can manage workloads and you certainly want to look into it. We have done that in the past as well. And, that's certainly going to be followed in the future because you need to maintain a core group of Test bowlers that you need all the time and it is not a difficult thing to do. But yes, one should be aware of that.

On how vital are the India pacers even on the fifth day’s pitch:

It is very important for our side to use them in short bursts and come attack the batsmen, try to pick up a wicket or two in the spell if possible, but otherwise, contain runs. That is the way we have used them so far. Could be different in the next game if the wicket is nice and hard, could be very different. You may see them bowl longer initially. You never know. It is according to conditions we use them. If you remember the game in Kolkata (against New Zealand), we used them for longer spells because the wicket allowed us to do that. They have been very good whenever we have asked the fast bowlers, they have been very very good.

On mocking shoulder injury at the fall of David Warner’s wicket on Sunday, holding on to his shoulder:

These things happen on the field. Four-five of them take Patrick Farhart's (India’s physio) name. I don't know why. His job is to treat me. I did not find the reason behind it. I could not understand. You must ask him (Smith) why they started taking his name.
 
On Wriddhiman Saha:

See, Saha's knock again was brilliant for us. He's always stood up when the team needs him and this game was no different. His partnership with Pujara was the reason we had a go at winning this Test. A lot of credit goes to him also. Again, (he's) not been mentioned too much but he deserves a lot of credit. He's one guy who is always willing to do anything for the team. Wherever we ask him to bat, he bats. He has no problems in batting after Ashwin, before Ashwin, whenever we want him to do it. He plays any kind of role – positive, defensive, you know, whatever we ask him to do, he never says no. So you really feel glad for a guy like that, he's willing to do anything for the team and put his best foot forward. As I said, I'm really happy he performed in a big pressure match, in a difficult situation and put us in a position to have a shot at winning the game.

On whether Mohammed Shami can figure in next Test after taking four wickets in Vijay Hazare Trophy final on Monday:

Yeah, we sent Shami to play because we saw him bowling 10-12 overs in a go, and we wanted to give him some match practice. I don't know (about his selection), I haven't spoken to the selectors still. All kinds of possibilities are there approaching the next Test.

On whether he considered himself batting for so long like Pujara and Smith did in this Test:

I would love to bat that long, why not? See, everyone has a different style of batting. I wouldn't change mine. Obviously, you learn and understand a lot of things from a lot of players all over. But yeah, everyone has his own strengths. If the situation demands you to play, you know, 300 balls and score 50-60 runs, you obviously put in effort for the team and grind the draw out. Different situations demand you play differently. But given an ideal situation of a first innings scenario, I would not change my game at all. 

On whether he should have used Ashwin early on Monday:

I don't want to expose the thinking behind it. We obviously have our plans, we've got one more match to go, I'll tell you after the last Test, probably, the plan behind it. See, as I said, we wanted to choose ends as far as spinners are concerned. We wanted to give Jadeja a longer go because he was hitting the rough consistently and the ball has to spin back into the batsmen. If you see right handers or left handers, from the rough it was always attacking the batsmen. That's one factor we used. And as I said, it depended on who's bowling from which end, not which bowler has to bowl from where. Sometimes, one bowler bowls more in a Test match. A lot of times, Ash has bowled plenty of overs in a game and the others haven't. You know, roles are always reversed, it's not such a big factor for us.