Indian skipper Virat Kohli believes that despite the 4-1 loss in England in the five-Test series, his team showed promise and fight against Joe Root and his team through the summer, which counts as a big plus.

“A lot of teams in the past basically have given up but we did not do so… and this kind of series shows you exactly the kind of character of individuals. I see that as an opportunity and not adversity because if you keep winning all the time a lot of faults are swept under the carpet, you don’t realise the faults you need to work on and I certainly haven’t played my cricket like that,” said the 28-year-old, who ended as the top run-getter in the series from either side.

“What matters to me is the kind of attitude you play cricket with. We said at the end of the fourth game that we won’t throw in the towel and we didn’t.”

India had their moments throughout the series and can take back a number of positives from the five matches. Kohli believes that while his team managed to tighten the screws on the hosts at times, the players were unable to sustain that pressure long enough.

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“We created pressure, we were not able to hold that pressure for long enough with the bat and the ball. At crucial stages, we could not keep that pressure on for long, and that is why they took advantage of those situations better than us,” acknowledged Kohli.

“We understand why this series has gone the way it has, to be honest, we don’t see a massive-massive portion that we need to correct, because if you are competing in every game, and you have an upper hand in every game at some stage or the other, you are doing something right.

“They deserved to win because they played better than us, that is how we look at this series, we do not look at this series as something that makes us think we can’t play in overseas conditions. Of course, we can play, but can we capitalise on the important moments better than the opposition? At the moment, no, we haven’t done that, but in future, we want to do that, and that is the only way we win series.”

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India won the Trent Bridge Test match by a hefty margin of 208 runs, but Kohli refuses to be content with a solitary win, to go with four defeats at that.

“Our aim is to win series, not to win the odd Test match and be happy about it, we are definitely not happy about the way the series has gone, but the way we played cricket is something that, not me, no one in the change room, no one doubts even one per cent, because we played with the right attitude and the will to win every game that we played,” he said.

While Kohli believes that India have shown considerable progress in the series, he also underlined the areas of improvement for the side.

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“The progress has been there. More importantly, we need to recognise when the situation is in our favour and how to solidify that situation even further and make sure that the opposition cannot get back in to the game. We have given the advantage to the opposition rather than them brilliantly turning around a situation,” said Kohli.

“And as I have mentioned in the past as well, we need to start series well, we can’t warm-up in to a series because the first Test is always crucial, and we need to make sure we are in the right frame of mind to be able to do all the things right to strike first.”

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