Virat Kohli heaped praise on the new Indian spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh after the one-off Test between India and Bangladesh ended in a draw at Fatullah on Sunday.
Former Test skipper MS Dhoni followed his own dictum of playing four bowlers in a Test match, but one would expect Kohli to be aggressive ever since he was handed over the captaincy in the longer format of the game.
He picked five bowlers instead of four for the one-off Test match against Bangladesh.
"I would like to have players who can win us games in the bowling unit. And both of them have that ability. Especially now that we have a prolonged season in the subcontinent," Kohli said.
"Watching them bowl together in a pair was really exciting as a captain. And I think both of them enjoyed bowling together as well; if one put pressure, the other took a wicket and vice versa," he told reporters in Fatullah after the one-off Test match ended in a draw.
Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh picked up eight wickets together to bundle Bangladesh out for 256 runs in their first innings. The fact that Kohli stressed on was that both these bowlers can bat in this format. Ashwin is averaging 36.03 in the Test matches and has scored couple of centuries as well. Harbhajan too has two centuries to his name.
"I am a big fan of playing five bowlers. I would want someone like R Ashwin, who is averaging 40 with the bat in Test matches. You really can't ask for more from an all rounder; and someone like Harbhajan Singh to step up with the bat, and (Wriddhiman) Saha too. If those three start clicking, you literally have eight batsmen, and you can't really ask for more as a captain. It's basically up to the first six to take more responsibility and we are confident of doing that," Kohli added.
