2019 has been one of the best years for Indian cricket - Kohli

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2019 has been one of the best years for Indian cricket - Kohli

Both Kohli and Rohit felt the World Cup exit was the only sore spot in an otherwise happy year. © BCCI

Having ended 2019 on a successful note, with a series win against West Indies, both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma took their minds back to the ICC World Cup, held earlier this year and felt that it was the lone sore spot in an otherwise happy year.

"A World Cup victory would have been nice," said Rohit, "But as a team, throughout the year, whether red ball or white-ball cricket, the team came together really well."

Rohit finished the year with ten international hundreds across formats, and 1490 ODI runs which placed him eighth in the all-time list. "Extremely grateful for the year I've had," he said and added that he understood his game better than before. "Personally I've enjoyed batting, but there's no way I'm stopping. There's an exciting year coming up. I understand my batting really well. I want to play within my limits, knowing the gameplan you want to execute is very, very important."

Skipper Kohli, who had a successful 2019 himself - becoming the first player to aggregate 2000-plus runs for four consecutive years - echoed Rohit's sentiments. "2019 has been one of the best years for Indian cricket," said Kohli.

"Apart from the 30 minutes [in the semifinal] in the World Cup, it's been a great year. We'll keep chasing that ICC trophy, this group deserves it for the amount of hard work we have put in. We have a vision in place," he said.

Asked, in the post-match presentation, if one of the biggest takeaways of the year is the emergence of a good fast bowling crop, Kohli said, "Having a bunch of fast bowlers who can bowl out any opposition anywhere - them taking the attention away from the spinners in India is a huge achievement. We feel we have it in us to win series overseas, not just the odd game."

That too was on the wishlist of Rohit, who said "Once we start travelling, we want to win games and stay on top of the table,", even as Kohli stressed on the importance of identifying youngsters to carry forward the good work done.

"We are in the process of trying out people, see how they react under pressure. Whether people want to accept it or not, the younger people will have to step up in a few years," said Kohli.