“When you leave, you want to leave the team in a better place, I feel we’ve a squad that’s ready to take on the world for the next eight years,” Kohli said. “Shubman [Gill] has been outstanding, Shreyas [Iyer] beautiful, KL [Rahul] has finished games, and Hardik [Pandya] has been superb with the bat.”
Kohli said the Champions Trophy triumph somewhat made up for India’s Test series loss in Australia. “It’s been amazing, we wanted to bounce back after a tough Australian tour, and wanted to win a big tournament and we ended up doing that so it’s an amazing feeling.”
Standing beside Gill during the celebrations, Kohli was asked for his thoughts on leaving the dressing room a better place when he eventually retires. “There’s so much talent in the dressing room,” he said. “They’re trying to take their game further and we’re [seniors] just happy to be of help, sharing our experience and that’s what makes this Indian team so strong.
“These are the things you want to play (for titles), playing under pressure and putting your hand up. The whole team, everyone has put their hands up sometimes or other during the course of the tournament. Everyone has put up impactful performances, we’ve been part of an amazing team, the amount of work we’ve done in the practice sessions, it feels great.”
Kohli had words of appreciation for his opponents, New Zealand. “Amazing, we’ve always been in awe with what they can do with the limited number of players they’ve had over the years, and just maximise their talent,” he said. “Every time we played against them in big games, we knew they were going to come with a set plan. No team in world cricket executes plans as well as they do.
“Every fielder knows where the bowler is going to bowl, you can sense it, they’re all attacking the ball, they know the bowler is going to be accurate. Credit to them for being the most consistent team in the last few tournaments. The reason for that is the immense belief in their skills, and the amount of talent they have they utilise that to the maximum.
“They’re easily the best fielding side in the world, a huge shout out to them. They continue to display why they’re one of the top teams in the world. Again a great campaign. It’s sad to see a very good friend [Kane Williamson] on the losing side, but I’ve been on the losing side a couple of times when he has been on the winning side, so only love between us.”
