India captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday revealed that his team got the extra motivation for winning the third Test after he lost the toss and therefore the opportunity to bat first on a good wicket.
Winning the toss and batting on the opening day is considered as a big advantage in Indian conditions but Kohli and Co overcame that to win the game by eight wickets.
"None of the pitches have been turners," said Kohli.
Kohli was surprised at the England fans' reaction after the toss. "We have just played very good cricket. We are getting more and more confident. We lost the toss, bowled them out for 280. I was surprised to hear the cheer when they won the toss. You still have to go out and win the game. We got motivated by that actually," he said.
He was all praise for his three spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, who also starred with the bat down the order. "The lower-order contribution is a proud achievement. That pushes the opposition back. Ashwin is a champion, No 1 allrounder, Jadeja is in the top 10, and for Jayant to show the maturity in his first Tests. He asked me for the fields he wanted. He took their spinners on,” he said.
However the wins against England at Visakhapatnam in the second Test and here in the third match came on tracks where there weren't much help for the spinners. "It's exactly been 12 months that I was asked a question about we playing on unfair pitches and the question has turned itself. So we don't need to say much about the pitches," said Kohli. "Even in Kolkata, we showed that we don't want dry square turners, we have enough skill to play good cricket and win against any team in the world. That's the belief we have created in the change room. That can only happen when you are not bothered what's happening outside that door and focus on your own skills," he added.
England captain Alastair Cook felt being bowled out for 283 in the first innings set them back. On the positives he said: "Stokes (Ben) is a brilliant player. He gives balance to the team. He is only going to get better and better. Haseeb (Hameed) showing character was a positive. Unfortunately Haseeb has to go home (due to injury). Showed a lot of character to come out and bat".
Save Cook, Joe Root, none of the England batsmen who played in the 2012 series were a part of the first three Test matches. England had posted a 2-1 win in 2012 over India, a side that had Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. "The India we played in 2012 was different. Probably an ageing team compared to now. It's a different set-up, more youngsters, who also have got four years of experience in these conditions. Our team in 2012 was a lot more experienced side (Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Jimmy Anderson, Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar) and played a lot more in the sub-continent before that. This side, only two in the top-order have played more than 1-2 games in the sub-continent before we played in Bangladesh. That's probably the difference," said Cook.