Kohli's remarks came after India's 7-wicket loss in the second Test match against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday (March 2).
Indian skipper Virat Kohli came out in defense of wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant's selection over Wriddhiman Saha in the playing 11.
Kohli's remarks came after India's 7-wicket loss in the second Test match against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday (March 2).
"We have given a lot of chances to Rishabh, you need to figure out when is the right time to give someone a chance. I don't see anyone taking their place for granted in this team, no one here has come in thinking that I am going to play every game," Kohli told reporters during the post-match press conference.
"Rishabh has worked very hard behind the scenes, so we thought of giving him a chance in this series. We thought he will come good in this series, but as a collective unit, we did not show a good batting performance," he added.
Pant managed to score 60 runs over the two Test matches with his top score bring 25.
Speaking on the topic of Ajinjya Rahane and Cheteshawar Pujar failing to deliver during the series, Kohli said: "Firstly, Rahane is one of those players who has been solid for us in Test cricket. It is about impact performances and he has played some crucial knocks. You also have to figure out as to how many guys average more than 40 in your team. Few games here and there if you don't score runs, doesn't mean you are a bad player. There are no issues there," the Indian captain said.
"In the Australia series, Pujara was the standout player. You cannot single out anyone. We have an aim of scoring big runs, it can happen with everyone scoring 50 or 60 or with one guy scoring 150 as Pujara did in Australia. In our team, we work as a collective unit," he added.
With this victory, the Blackcaps whitewashed India in the two-match Test series and has claimed up to third in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings with 180 points.
Team India are still leading the pack with 360 points after 9 matches played.
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 "Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant")
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