Kohli not satisfied, says Edgbaston century not his best

Virat Kohli is never satisfied. He is always striving for more, that extra bit, which will give India the edge. Perhaps that is what separates him from the rest.

Virat Kohli is never satisfied. He is always striving for more, that extra bit, which will give India the edge. Perhaps that is what separates him from the rest.

When former and current cricketers around the globe are going gaga over his first hundred in England, terming it the best Test innings in recent memory, Kohli outrightly states that he is ‘disappointed’.

The Indian captain was not happy by just getting India close, he wanted to take the lead. “I was very disappointed when I got out, we could’ve taken a 10-15 run lead had I kept batting a little longer,” said Kohli to BCCI.tv after the close of play on day two.

Kohli (149) was the last man to be dismissed as England bowled India out for 274, taking a slender lead of 13 runs. This, however, does not give the entire picture. This does not say that Kohli had to play the grittiest innings of his career, change his approach, take different guards to bowlers, use the depth of the crease, resist driving and in the end score 98 runs with no. 10 and 11.

“It was difficult but I took it upon me, told myself to take the innings deep, so it was a test of physical and mental strengths… I’m glad we came close to their total and we’re pretty much in the game.”

The skipper was all praise for the Indian tail, which helped him to get India close.

“Hardik batted really when we lost our top five early. The tail did a commendable job. Umesh and Ishant really applied themselves. Credit to them for making me feel confident in the middle and it’s because of them that we were able to get so close to England’s first innings total.”

Kohli’s 149 accounted for 54% of India’s first innings – second highest contribution by an Indian captain after Dhoni’s 82 (55%) at Oval in 2014. Taking into account, the difficulty of the conditions, situation of the match and quality of attack, Kohli’s hundred in Edgbaston easily ranks higher than most of his innings. But try telling this to Kohli.

“No, I don’t think (this was my best innings) … This hundred would probably be second to Adelaide, it remains very special to me because it came in the 2^nd innings, we were chasing a target. I had total clarity that we are going for the target, not once did I think that we are playing for a draw,” said Kohli.