Virat Kohli: I Have Faith We Can Be Amongst Best Teams Ever

After spoiling Sri Lanka's party to be in what was their much celebrated legend Kumar Sangakkara's final Test, Virat Kohli along with others like Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra made the most of an indoor Badminton Court in the P Sara Stadium complex in Colombo. Now, it's a well known fact that Virat is arguably the fittest cricketer in the Indian Test team and as NDTV learnt the Captain in jest, had quite a memorable time making the others run around on the Badminton Court. (Virat Kohli A Proactive Captain: Gavaskar)

"I love Badminton. They make me run around as well. I think it is a really good thing for bonding. But I enjoy making them run around a little as well." (Kohli Confirms His Relationships with Anushka)

R Ashwin said Virat Kohli was always saying that you have to best in the world. Keeping that in mind the thought of Virat's vision for his Test team could be a thought to ponder over. So, did Virat believe his side had the potential to be amongst the best ever? (Kohli Determined to Re-Establish India As a Strong Team)

"I wouldn't like to say one of the best ever, every team has potential, after that it all depends on how you mentally prepare, how determined or how motivated you are to be the best in the world, and what you are willing to do every day in your life to be at that level and once you reach there, to sustain that level. So, I think it is all about the mindset after a certain stage because to reach this level you need to have the skill which everyone does. I certainly do have faith in this team, and everyone has faith in each other. It's more about how mentally we are tuning ourselves, how strongly we can relate to each other.That will really define where we play our cricket in future after say 5 or 10 years."

For a team that has only just won it's first Test series, it would be slightly premature to ask it's members about whether they think they can be the best ever, but confidence is probably the greatest asset of this young team. They would want to set personal goals but may not necessarily want to share those goals with the world just yet.

On a separate note, Virat was candid enough to say that as a batsman he likes to Test himself in the toughest conditions but that doesn't mean the rule of a maximum of two bouncers in Test cricket needs to be changed in favour of the bowlers.

"I think right now two bouncers an over is pretty competitive.People felt in the one day game it was going too much towards the batsman so to make it more competitive they introduced new rules which I think is great for the sport."

"Right now, I feel Test cricket is in the balance because of the two bouncers. I always like to have fair play for both. As a batsman you want to have the toughest conditions to play because you want to test yourself and because you are a part of the team you want your bowlers to have the advantage as well. I just cannot think because I am a batsman the rules should favour me, it's about the team winning, I need to look after the bowlers as well so I think it should be 50-50".

Through India's tour of Sri Lanka Sunil Gavaskar had said consistently that Virat should bat at number 3 in Test cricket. But what is Virat's lucky batting position?

"I really don't know. I played in one day cricket for a long time at number 3, that has sort of become very natural to me. I know what to do at that position and you know I know exactly what needs to be done in a certain situation and I can relate to it quite a bit. In Test cricket I was somehow given the number 4 spot because (Sachin Tendulkar) retired and Cheteshwar was already playing at three and he pretty much made that position his and then Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane) came in and he was playing at 5.

"But, I really don't know what comes naturally to me, but in one day cricket I would say that I can relate to number 3 more. I don't know in future you may see me batting in different positions in Test matches but as I have said before it all depends on what the situation demands. I might even open a game if need be but I think 3 and 4, close to that I can relate to more."

Virat Kohli, opening the innings in Test cricket? Now wouldn't that be playing the brand of cricket he wants to - fearless and aggressive cricket.