'I’m proud of the fight that we showed' – Virat Kohli
In the battle between India's batting and England's bowling, the home side prevailed on an exciting day of Test cricket on Saturday, 4 August. Kohli and co. were outplayed on the fourth day as the hosts, led by a supercharged Ben Stokes, who picked up 4/40 in 14.2 overs, helped his side to a famous win.
Despite the loss, Kohli admitted that he was "glad to be a part of such an exciting Test match".
"It was one that I will fondly remember if we had won [my century] would have been the No.1 for me," Kohli told Sky Sports after the match. "It was hard work, and when you’re able to take your team close to the first innings total of a home side it always feels good. We thought we could build on that, the target was in sight, we needed one more partnership to pull us through which didn’t happen.
"There were a couple of times where we made comebacks into the game and I thought we showed character there but a team like England will not let you do that every time, and we realised that on the final day - they were relentless in the areas that they hit.
"They made us work hard for those runs, we definitely could have applied ourselves better, but I’m still proud of the fight that we showed. We haven’t had a chance to speak yet, but the chat will be around taking out the positives, showing more character."
Kohli, who top-scored for India in both innings with scores of 149 and 51, said he was impressed with his bowlers' performance but admitted that batting is one area his team needs to work on more.
"I’m not really thinking about the first innings right now, just thinking about how we’re going to group ourselves together and come back strong in the next Test," he said.
"We definitely need to apply ourselves more with the bat. I think the bowlers were outstanding in the second innings. They responded really well. There’s a lot to learn from the lower order especially in the first innings, Ishant (Sharma) and Umesh (Yadav) getting stuck in there, and then again in the second innings they got stuck in with Hardik (Pandya).
"Those kinds of things make you realise as top order batsmen that we need to apply ourselves better and just look in the mirror. There’s no hiding in this game. When you step on the field, whatever you’re feeling inside will come out in no time. We’ve just got to be positive, fearless, just try to enjoy our cricket, and try to take the negatives out of the equation, look at the positives and build on those."
The Indian captain also praised the hosts, in the way they came back into the game. "It was a great show by England to show resilience and come back into the game," said Kohli.
"We can be proud as a team and to start like that in a series against England in England, we can go from here."