Long way to go: Kohli on Gavaskar's 'one of India's greatest cricket captains' compliment

BENGALURU: Virat Kohli has humbly accepted Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar's compliment that the Indian skipper would go down as "one of India's greatest cricket captains."

Kohli, while addressing a post-match media briefing here, said that the journey to being great is long.

"It feels good to get appreciation; it is a decent compliment. But it is a long way to go," Kohli said, after Australia outclassed India in the fourth ODI match, at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium here.

Gavaskar, on Tuesday, had made an interesting prediction when he said that Kohli would go down as one of India's greatest cricket captains. 

Gavaskar highlighted the contribution of the 28-year-old in cultivating a culture in the team that was "rooted in physical fitness and ruthlessness."

Meanwhile, post-match, Kohli, while admitting that Australia was better on the day criticised his batting line-up and backed his bowlers saying, “It wasn't a great batting performance from us”.

"We got a good opening partnership but we needed one big partnership after that as well. From that point of view, it wasn't a great batting performance from us. That can happen. People have off days. Umesh [Yadav] and [Mohammed[ Shami bowled well. Spinners won't have good days always. Australia was really good today," Kohli said.

"With the bat, their (Australia) intent was really good. They pulled things back nicely in the field. We didn't play so bad, but they were better on the day. Their bowling, in the end, was quite good. They got breakthroughs at the right time and that stopped our momentum," he added.

Earlier, the hosts had taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. But, after losing three consecutive matches to India, Australia finally managed to end the drought and scored a win in the fourth ODI defeating India by 21 runs.

The team in blue had a monstrous target of 335 runs to chase here at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, but it could manage only 313 for 8 at the end of 50 overs.

India will take on Australia in the fifth and final ODI at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Sunday.