Ahead of India's departure for a long and gruelling tour of Ireland and England, Indian Captain Virat Kohli has come out and expressed that he looks forward to the challenge that awaits and reiterated he has immense faith in the squad that has been picked for the stern couple of months in the United Kingdom. 

Virat addressed the media alongside head coach Ravi Shastri, in a press conference, where India's numero uno said, "After what happened in South Africa, we are actually looking forward to some tough cricket, When we were playing the Test series in South Africa and lost the first two matches, people thought we were outplayed. Then we won the third Test and won the two series after that. Then they realised how well we played. We are looking forward to going to other countries and playing well. We are looking forward to playing difficult cricket,"

India has ambitioned to do what they couldn't in South Africa this year. Indian team lost the Test series in the rainbow nation 2-1 but recovered and went onto beat the home side in the ODIs and T20Is that followed. India won a lot against the Proteas but did very little to resurrect their status as poor Test travellers. They lost another overseas Test series in South Africa.

India has lost 17 and won just 2 of their last 24 Tests in South Africa, Australia, England and New Zealand combined. Their last two Test series in England have resulted in 4-0 and 3-1. 

Nevertheless, Virat Kohli gets belief from the young team that has shown a lot of skills playing at home and in Johannesburg recently. 

He further said, "People have forgotten the Champions Trophy(2013 and 2017) was also played in England. I was asked what I would when I landed there, and I said I wanted to walk around the streets with a cup of coffee. My thinking is very different. If I think like how people are thinking on the outside, then it does not go well,"

Head Coach Ravi Shastri added to what his Captain said, by stating, "Every series is important. Every game is a home game for us. We do not play the opposition - we play the pitch. The 22-yards.. that is what we have to try and conquer. The boys know they will be rated if they can adapt to different conditions. We are looking forward to playing in other countries.. I am not sure too many teams want to come to India,"

(Inputs from India Today)