India lost the fifth and final Test match against England by 118 runs at the Oval on Tuesday. With this series loss, India's gruelling 11-week-long tour of England came to a disappointing end.
Reflecting on the performance and fielding questions from the reporters during a post-match press conference, Indian skipper Virat Kohli said, "I think the 1-4 scoreline is a fair one as England played better than us but we were not outplayed barring the Lord's Test."
"The kind of cricket we have played might not show on the scorecard. But both the teams know this series has been a competitive one," he continued.
One of the reporters asked him a question based on head coach Ravi Shastri's comments from a week ago. Last Wednesday Shastri had said, "The endeavour of this team is to travel well and compete and win. If you look at the last three years, we have won nine matches overseas and three series. I can't think of any Indian team in the last 15-20 years which has had that kind of a run in such a short period of time. And you've had some great players playing in those series."
The reporter asked, "Do these tags (best team in 15 years) put pressure on you? Do you actually believe you are?"
Kohli replied: "We have to believe we are the best side. Why not?"
The reporter asked again, "The best team in 15 years?" To which irked Kohli calmly responded, "What do you think?" The reporter said, "I am not sure." The Indian captain ended the conversation by saying, "That’s your opinion. Thank you."
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Commenting on the 15-year tag even Sunil Gavaskar had scathing comments to offer.
"All I can say is that no Indian team has won in Sri Lanka for a long time. But we have won in the West Indies, in England, Test matches in Australia and South Africa," said the Indian legend.
India under Virat Kohli suffered a new low with the Oval Test loss as this is the first time since their 0-4 defeat against Australia in 1991-92.
For Indian skipper Virat Kohli, he ended up as the highest run scorer by a comfortable margin. In 5 Test, Kohli scored 593 runs at an average of 59.30 including two centuries. While James Anderson went on to become the highest wicket-taker in the series as he claimed 24 wickets.
