Virat Kohli stamp all too evident in India's ODI series win over South Africa

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Bengaluru, February 14: During the pre-match press do ahead of the Johannesburg Test against South Africa, Virat Kohli sounded like a captain trying to gather his crew around in a sinking ship.

India had already lost the Test series. There were talks about a green pitch in the Wanderers to suit the South Africa quicks. Here Kohli was desperately trying to instill some positivity in his mates when he said there's no bad time to start winning.

"It's never a bad time to start anything, that's what I believe in. It's a chance for everyone to step up in times that have not gone our way and to change things around for us. That will build characters, that will build individuals and that will build personalities. That can be a milestone for guys going forward if they can step up in this game and be the difference for us in this Test match. So it's never a bad time to start," Kohli had said.

Motivational words for sure. But erasing the gnawing self doubts and start all over again after two crushing defeats is not an easy job. But somehow the Indians found a way to respond to Kohli's call.

They won the Johannesburg Test. The match told them winning is not impossible in South Africa. From that point, India have not looked back. The defeat in the rain-hit fourth ODI at Johannesburg looks no bigger than a mere aberration now as India clinched a bilateral series in the Rainbow Nation for the first time since started visiting there from 1993.

Several factors contributed to it. Virat Kohli (429 runs at 143) and Shikhar Dhawan (305 runs at 76.25) led the batting and Rohit Sharma, who never managed a 50 in SA, joined the party with a 100 at Port Elizabeth. South African batting looked as strong as candyfloss against storm while facing the wrist spin of Kuldeep Yadav (16 wickets at 11.5) and Yuzvendra Chahal (14 wickets at 16).

But one factor towered over all of them. Kohli's will. It's one thing to have desire to achieve greatness at a personal level and to impart that desire to others is quite another. Kohli bridged that vast chasm during the latter part of this series against South Africa.

You can argue that some of the pitches have been more Indian than South African in nature and the hosts missed the services of AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Dale Steyn at various stages so that they were a bit green behind the ears.

But the fact remains that India achieved this series win in SOUTH AFRICA.

The hardcore pessimists among us will fall back on the Test series loss and predict tough times in England and Australia. But the Johannesburg Test and the ODI series have given enough indications that challenges will not daunt this Indian side. Kohli too stressed that the results in South Africa will have far greater reach than this tour.

"It's a wonderful feeling to have created some history," said Virat Kohli in the post-match press conference. "The guys really got stuck in, with the bat and the ball and in the field as well," he said.

History is often created by teams that have members on the same page and this Indian side can add few more chapters if they travel together.