It has to be the best innings of my career, says Virat Kohli

Chasing 320 for victory from 40 overs to earn the bonus point, Virat Kohli scored 133 runs from 86 balls to give India a win in 36.4 overs. To put things in perspective, Herschelle Gibbs’ 175 against the Australians in their record hunt of 434 was scored at 8.7 runs per over. Today, Kohli’s innings enforced a run-rate of 8.75. He later claimed that he never once thought that the target was out of reach. Terming his 86-ball 133 knock which helped India do the unthinkable against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, Virat Kohli termed his knock as the best of his international career, writes Indian Express.

"It has to be the best innings of my career. The kind of situation we were in, chasing 320 and also we needed bonus points, so it was a crunch game and to play an innings like that at the right time, I felt it was a great innings for me," Kohli told reporters after the match.

Asked if the innings will answer his critics, Kohli said it was more about proving a point to himself, writes The Indian Express. "Critics will always be there, the innings was more of proving a point to myself. It was like if you play well, we can take the team to victory. So it really feels nice to play that sort of an innings. Before my innings in Perth, I was thinking about what we going on in the media but after that I stopped watching news. I told myself to think positive and that there is no good reason not to score run. I kept believing and I think that was the key," he added.

Kohli said the successful pursuit here would lift the team's morale, says a report in the Hindu. “The mood in the dressing room was amazing after the win. If we reach the finals, you will see a totally different Indian team.”

Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar feels Virat Kohli has “tremendous skills and lot of self belief at such a young age“. “It was nice to see that Virat is now converting those good looking 20s and 30s into brilliant 100,“ Gavaskar told a channel. “Virat has plenty of self belief and great skills.”

Coming to the selection for the Asia Cup, when the selection committee sits in Mumbai on Wednesday to pick the squad for the Asia Cup in Dhaka, it is likely to face two questions. Will it look at Tuesday's match in Hobart in isolation and uphold those that called for drastic changes in the squad beginning with resting Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina who have failed to shine on this tour?, writes HT

Meanwhile, India's Mithali Raj and skipper Jhulan Goswami retained top spots in the latest ICC Women's ODI Players rankings. West Indies' Stafanie Taylor is 11 ratings points behind Raj, who has held on to No. 1 spot since February 2011.