On his first Test tour of the Caribbean, Virat Kohli struggled with the bat. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh got more runs than him on that tour in 2011. India did not play a Test series in the Caribbean after that, but when they finally returned in 2016 for their first Test series of the year, Kohli pounced on the opportunity and got his maiden first-class double hundred at Sir Viv Richards Cricket Stadium on Friday. The memories of that tour had not faded away, but Kohli instead rewrote the history books by becoming the first Indian captain to get a double century in Tests overseas.

Later in the chat with BCCI.TV, the Indian captain reflected on his feat and spoke about different facets of his game.

West Indies (Caribbean) is the place where you made your Test debut. You said you learned a lot about Test cricket from that tour. Are you happy that you are back in the Caribbean and got your biggest Test score here?

Yes, it is a very good feeling. I made my debut here and it wasn’t a memorable series for me. Coming back here and getting a double hundred gives me a lot of satisfaction purely because of the fact that I have missed a couple of big scores in the past. I know I have the ability to get big hundreds. This is my first double hundred in first-class matches in general, so this is something I always wanted to do and I am feeling really grateful today that I was able to cross the mark. It is just a very good feeling. Test cricket is the most important format as far as I am concerned and the whole of team is concerned, so when you do well in Test cricket, it gives you the job satisfaction like nothing else. I am really happy for this moment. As a captain you are someone who wants to play with five specialist batsmen as you want to give bowlers enough time to take 20 wickets. In such a scenario, there is more responsibility on you as a leader of the team to walk the talk. See, it is very important to understand the responsibility in front of you when you go in with a combination. Playing five batsmen is a bit of an added pressure on the batsman but that is what we want to take up as a challenge. The batsmen decided to take up the responsibility. As captain, I would never ask the players to do what I cannot do myself first and I have always believed in that. In this innings, the West Indies bowlers bowled well initially with the new ball and we were not getting many runs. I had decided in the change room that I am going to go out there, be positive and show intent and the runs started flowing. I knew if I stay long enough at the crease, I will get the runs I required and the team requires at the same time, and ended up scoring at a very good rate. We had very important contributions by Shikhar (84); understanding the responsibility. Ashwin batted beautifully and got a hundred (100) as well. Saha (40) contributed well and Mishra made 60 odd (53) in the end. All in all, it was a very good batting effort by everyone and something that we can be proud of. It is a bit of an added pressure (on the batsmen) but something that is what you want at this level of cricket. The team looks up to you and expects you to score runs. The fans expect a lot from you. The opposition is always looking at ways to dismiss you, but you don’t let anything affect your batting. I think what a lot of people don’t understand is that there is more pressure when you’re not batting. When you are in the change room, you’re interacting with people, you get to know what people are saying and what people close to you expect from you. I think those are the things that give pressure. When I go out to bat, I am all by myself and my batting partner. People don’t understand that I am actually at a lot of peace when I am batting alone out there because I don’t have to interact with too many people and don’t have to listen to their expectations or know what they require of me. I can literally reflect on myself, understand what my thoughts and mood are and then work on those things. That is why I always prefer being out there in the middle than getting to know these things from people. When you perform for a certain period of time, people are going to expect things from you, but I take that up as a blessing. If people expect me to go out there and perform, it is because they like the way I play. They want me to do well so that the team can do well. I always wanted to be in that position so I have no complaints about it. I rather feel happy about it and I feel grateful that I am in this situation. What sorts of adjustments were required on this track? I think the shot selection is very important on this kind of wicket. The wicket has enough pace as you saw with the two fast bowlers in the end as well. You need to bowl good areas but at the same time, as a batsman you need to select your shots and that is what I focused on as well when I went out to bat. I backed myself to be positive, backed myself to score quickly because I knew if we had to bowl the opposition out, we need enough time for the bowlers; to be fresh again and also have breaks in between. This was one innings that came together very nicely.