Kohli "at peace" with form as India gear up for Test decider

 CAPE TOWN - Indian captain Virat Kohli on Monday brushed aside concerns about his form as he looked ahead to the decisive

third Test against South Africa starting at Newlands on Tuesday.

  Without a century in his past 14 Tests, Kohli said he believed he was still
making important contributions to the team.

  "I don't look at myself from the lens that the outside world looks at me
with," said the 33-year-old who has been a fixture in the Test team since
making his debut against the West Indies in 2011.

  "The standards that they are talking about have been set by myself, they
are not an utterance from outside.

  "I take a lot of pride in wanting to do the best thing for the team and
wanting to perform regularly for the team.

  "I have been able to do that for a long period of time."

  Kohli's last Test hundred came against Bangladesh in Kolkata over two years
ago in November 2019 but he said he had still been contributing.

  "As a player and a batsman I have been involved in many important moments
for the team over the last calendar year or so," he said.

  "I have been part of very important partnerships when the team needed me
and those moments have been crucial for us in many Test matches.

  "I'm at peace with how I am playing."

  Kohli said he was fully fit after missing India's defeat in the second Test
in Johannesburg because of a back spasm.

  However, fast bowler Mohammed Siraj will not be playing after suffering a
hamstring strain in Johannesburg.

  The Indian captain said he took pride in his fitness but injuries such as
those he suffered last week and which kept Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja
out of the South Africa tour were "natural occurrences" for players involved
in all formats of the game.

  "I have been playing three formats (for India) and in the IPL (Indian
Premier League) for almost 10 years," he said.

  "There has to be the right balance between the quantity and intensity of
the cricket that we play."

  With the series against South Africa tied at 1-1, Kohli praised the
collective commitment and passion that had driven India to rise from seventh
when he took over the captaincy in 2014 to the number one ranking in Test
cricket.

  "I laid out a vision and a path that we needed to follow and I had to lead
from the front because I knew that I had to play with a very high intensity
to be able to drive this passion and this motivation and this environment."

  He said the Indian team now believed they could win from any situation.

  Kohli said a key factor was the emergence of a group of fast bowlers that
made selection "confusing" and which had opposition teams "thinking of our
bowling line-up before they start thinking of conditions".BSS/AFP