South Africa vs India: Virat Kohli rates character over skill in the national side

Team India skipper Virat Kohli does not like mincing his words much. He is pretty direct in his opinions and has a very clear thought process. Recently, skipper Kohli led from the front in the first ODI against South Africa by scoring a thumping century. His stellar knock helped team India end their jinx at the Kingsmead, Durban. Also, they have taken a very valuable 1-0 lead in the six-match ODI series.

Both teams, India and South Africa, coming in to the series, are looking at the bigger picture as they take the field. The preparations for the ICC World Cup 2019 has begun and the teams are forming the core of the group. Amidst this backdrop, Virat Kohli recently spoke about the kind of players the Indian team is looking forward to. He remarked that the team rates characters over skill. He feels that a person contributing when the team is in need is more important than anything else.

“We don’t want to be one-dimensional. All options are open. We look at characters before we look at skill. We look at a guy who scored 40 when the team needed it the most, compared to a guy who has scored runs but might not have affected the state of the game that much. We look for game-changers, we look for guys who embrace pressure,” Virat Kohli quoted as per the quotes in Times of India.

Faf du Plessis reflects back at the defeat

Meanwhile, South African skipper Faf du Plessis reflected back at the Durban defeat. He remarked that the Indian spinners came in handy for the visitors in the match. They were successful in slowing down the proceedings in the match and that worked wonders for the Indian team. Also, they kept taking wickets at regular intervals to keep the hosts in check.

“They slowed the game down, they got wickets through the middle period. If you can get wickets through the middle period, you’ll win a lot of One-day games. We couldn’t do that,” cited Faf du Plessis.

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