And after a 333-run defeat against Australia in Pune that brought his team’s 19-match unbeaten run to a screeching halt, Kohli was brutally honest in saying India deserved nothing after  a poor performance.

Kohli loathed the way Indian batsmen negotiated a rank turner, saying they showed how not to bat on such tracks and termed the massive defeat against Australia as their “worst” batting performance in recent times.

Speaking after his first Test defeat in India as captain, Kohli rued the batting displays:

“The batting let us down in both the innings. Our application was not good. There were no partnerships worth mentioning — it used to be an area which filled us with pride. The batsmen need to pull their socks up. The batting was not up to standards, it showed how we shouldn’t bat, that’s all I will say.”

Earlier, at the post-match presentation he called this the ‘worst batting performance’ in a long time.

“We got outplayed in this game. We got to take it on the chin, accept that they outplayed us. It was our worst batting display in the last two years. We were not good enough on any of the three days. It was the case of us not applying ourselves too well. We need to see what we did wrong.”

The India captain said it was “criminal” to concede a 155-run first innings lead as it made it too difficult to pull things back.

“It rarely happens that 4-5 people make judgment errors in both the innings and especially with the way we have batted over the last few months, I would say this was our worst batting performance. We need to accept that we batted badly and need to improve and back stronger in Bangalore. There’s lot of cricket left in the series.”

Talking about his own dismissal — he was bowled by spinner Steeve O’ Keefe whie leaving a ball — Kohli said he made a “judgment error”.

Kohli said the team will take the defeat in its stride and move ahead like it did after the loss at Galle against Sri Lanka in late 2015 from where the golden run commenced.

“It’s just another international game, no big deal. Just as you should be calm and composed and not get over-excited when we win, the same way we should stay the same way when we lose. We take it on the chin.”

“The last time we had a performance like this we had an outstanding run from Galle. I would say that we needed something like this for a reality check and understand what we need to work on and not take anything for granted especially at the international level.”

When asked what led to such a defeat and whether India got their combination wrong, Kohli had this to say:

“If you drop five catches off one batsman (Australia captain Steve Smith), you certainly don’t deserve to win and also if you lose seven wickets for 11 runs. I am sure you would not have asked me this question had we won. Our mindset does not change with the results.”

He maintained the Indian bowlers, world’s no.1 ranked bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin, did their bit.

“I won’t blame the bowlers at all. Our batsmen put us in that position. It’s very difficult to come back after conceding such a big lead. The bowlers tried their level best. Someone like Umesh Yadav bowling like that on a slow wicket was great to see.”

Kohli reserved praise for the Australian performance too.

“They exploited it better than us. They put us under pressure throughout and deserved to win this game. Credit to them that they played better than us.”

With PTI inputs