Ashwin has set a benchmark for youngsters: Kohli

With the fifth Test match only of academic interest, India skipper Virat Kohli said the intention to win a Test match remains the same and does not depend on the result of the series. “We are just taking at game at a time, I don't think we are looking at a collective series as 4-0. For us every game is separate from the other and the intensity and the motivation to win a Test match remains the same, whether we have won the series or haven't won the series, or it's drawn. We are not looking at a score line as such. We just want to continue what we have been doing,” Kohli said. 

The Delhi batsman said India’s preparation and the focus would be on building block by block. “It takes a lot of hard work to win a Test match and to put a number to it (4-0), I think it would be unfair to the players and the series as well. So for us it's going through the process, that we have been doing and focussing on situation, each session, one at a time and slowly build the blocks to get a Test win,” Kohli added. 

The captain said it didn’t take much time for him to motivate the lower order to contribute with the bat and lauded home-town boy Ravichandran Ashwin for setting a benchmark for the younger crop. “Their contributions with the bat have been outstanding. I think Ashwin has set a benchmark for the other spinners to contribute with the bat as well. Jadeja has come of age with the bat in this series too. Jayant has been a keen learner and gets inspired seeing Ashwin. He works a lot on his batting as well.  When the lower order contributes, it gives me, as a captain, more freedom to play five batsmen and it is a situation where the bowlers contribute 120-130 runs every game. That's as good as playing another batsman and you get a bowling option as well. So I give them credit for working hard and giving the team that extra option,” he added. 

Kohli said the Indian team wasn’t invincible as yet and needs to win more series in the next half-a-decade or so to set a mark in world cricket. “We still understand we got to play a lot of cricket everywhere in the world. It’s not only about this one period we are going through. It looks really good because we have come out of transition and immediately started winning games. But I wouldn’t take thing as overconfidence. As I said it’s an ongoing process which needs to be sustained for the next five-seven or eight years for us to become a top quality side and leave a mark on world cricket. We want to do it across formats and make that mark for Indian cricket on the world stage. But it requires a lot of persistence and skill, lot of hard work on your fitness and those are the key factors which will decide where we go as a unit and as a team. We don’t feel invincible to be honest, we respect every opposition, we admit every time we are put under pressure, and we know teams are going to put us under pressure,” Kohli added.