Australia win 'top of the pile' for emotional Kohli

India’s historic win was confirmed in Sydney on Monday, 7 January, when rain on the final day forced the match to be drawn. The visitors thus secured the series 2-1, and for Kohli, life came full circle.

“I’ve never been more proud to be part of a team than this one right here,” he said. “The culture that we’ve been able to build, especially over the last 12 months … the transition started from here (in Australia), when I became the captain for the first time.

“Back here after four years, we could never have thought that we’d be standing here, in this position, winning a Test series for the first time in our cricketing history in this country.

“I’m proud, firstly as a part of the team, and then to lead these players. It’s an honour and a privilege, and they make a captain look good. We definitely deserve to enjoy this moment.”

Kohli has achieved plenty in the sport, but despite that, winning in Australia “has to be at the top of the pile”, he said, and added that he felt emotions he hadn’t quite felt before, even when he was part of the side that won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

“When we won the World Cup in 2011, I was the youngest member of the side. I saw all the people getting emotional, but I didn’t really feel what they felt,” said Kohli. “Having been to this country three times, to understand what we’ve done has never been done before – it’s something we can be really proud of.

“I feel this series win will give us a different identity as an Indian team. Going forward, I think we can inspire a lot of kids to do the same when they grow up and play cricket for the country. What we’ve been able to achieve is something we can be really proud of.”

Kohli also served a warning that the series win wasn’t a culmination of the team’s efforts, but rather, just the beginning. “This is just a stepping stone for us,” he said, when asked if he saw this side dominating the sport.

“If you see the average age in the team, it’s a young side. The most important thing for us in the last 12 months has been belief. We believed in South Africa that we were on the right track. We believed in England we were on the right track, and now we’ve the results to back that belief.

“We’ve always been honest about our work, we’ve been going in the right direction, and our intent as has always been good – to take Indian cricket forward, and do the best we can. And here we stand with the most outstanding result we can think of.”