On the eve of the third and the final Test between India and South Africa, Indian skipper Virat Kohli addressed the media and it had just questions and answers. It wasn’t anything like the last one he had at Centurion more than a week back.

The post-series defeat interaction at Centurion was the reason for the new order. After the second innings collapse on Day 5, Virat had got involved with a couple of reporters. Queries about the constant chopping and changing of the team hadn’t gone down well with the losing captain.

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But at Wanderers, the conversations were friendly. Kohli said how he was learning every day, he acknowledged that his team’s fielding wasn’t impressive and the need for the individuals in the team to reflect on their mistakes.

Even when he was presented, a ready excuse for the team not getting enough time to prepare, he wasn’t taking it. Virat wasn’t too sensitive to probing questions, he was in an introspective mood.

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This was a day after South African skipper Graeme Smith had said that he didn’t see Kohli as a long-term captain. Smith said, “At the end of this year, he’d have been away from home for a while, the pressure he’ll face, the scrutiny from the press — I know he gets that in India — but if you’re away from home and you’re struggling for form as a team, I don’t know if I’d want to burden Virat Kohli with that.”

Kohli said he could never stop learning as a captain, he described, “So it’s always an ongoing process of learning every day, learning from your mistakes, correcting those mistakes and going forward … I have never stopped learning, I will never stop learning. Look, responsibility can become less or more according to the phases, it’s all about hanging in there and accepting all the phases that are coming your way.”

He further elaborated, “So even this is a part of it. I have to take it in my stride and go forward. And not sit here and say ‘this is a lot of burdens’. That’s not the right attitude. I’m willing to go through any kind of phase, I have gone through bad phases in my career. Ups and downs are a part of a sportsman’s career and I understand that. As I said, you learn every day and keep moving forward.”

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When asked if the flaws of the repeatedly failing Indian batsmen were addressed, the Indian skipper replied, “Look, Sanjay Bangar is there, the batting coach, and he is assisting us with all our batting requirements for so long. Everyone has been spoken to individually; the discussions have happened as to what went wrong, what happened, why it happened and the guys have taken it well. And as I said, anytime you step on to the field, you have an opportunity to correct your mistakes, and that’s how you progress at the international level. I am sure everyone is looking forward to rectifying those mistakes and then if they are in the same positions, consolidating those positions.”

Kohli concluded by stating that not a single individual is responsible for the loss of Team India, he said, “I think responsibility isn’t just one-sided, I think it’s a collective responsibility of everyone and those aspects are and have been a point of consideration for a while. I personally don’t feel that we didn’t feel prepared starting this series. As I said, we are not going to sit and think of outside factors that made us lose. It was our errors, our mistakes of not capitalizing on situations that led us to the result being 2-0 so far. I am not pinpointing anything else, I think those talks are left for later planning for future.”