India travels down under for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later this year and skipper Virat Kohli says he is absolutely upbeat over his team's chances and doesn't mind the possibility of playing a Day-Night Test encounter in a country where no visiting side has yet achieved success in the pink-ball version.
The Indian captain's word came just prior to the start of the three-match ODI series at home versus the Aussies, who came here last year too and won the rubber 3-2; this, just a few months after Kohli's men reigned supreme in Australia in Test match cricket for the very first time.
Ever since India played its first-ever D/N Test in Kolkata against Bangladesh in November last year, there have been speculations whether the No.1 ranked side will continue to embrace the new concept and do that overseas having previously denied Australia's request to go ahead with the traditional encounter in Adelaide.
"Look we played the day-night Test here; we were pretty happy with how it went and it has become a very exciting feature of any Test series and we are absolutely up to playing day-night Tests," Kohli told reporters ahead of the first ODI in Mumbai on January 14.
"We are absolutely up for the challenge and whether its Gabba, Perth doesn't matter to us. We do have the skillsets now to compete against anyone in the world anywhere in any format of the game."
Recent results have only added more spice to the great India-Australia rivalry. "India-Australia is not a new thing," Kohli said. "The teams know each other well and we have played so much against each other. Having won last year it gives us a lot more confidence going back and I think this time the series will be a lot different in terms of their batting challenging our bowlers."
While India won in Australia 2-1 the last time, Kohli knows the task is going to be more difficult with the return of Steve Smith and David Warner. "To be fair, last time around their players were not that experienced if you take out David Warner and Steve Smith," he said. "Marnus came in but he played only one game. The way he played up in the last summer its been amazing to watch."
"So yeah it will be a challenge to break through that batting order and going to Australia you shouldn't be expecting anything easy."
"As I said we want to keep challenging us as a team and we are the top-2 sides in the WTC table as well so I am sure it's gonna be amazing to watch as this series is gonna be right up there with any of the best series you have seen in the past 5-6 years," Kohli added.
(Inputs from India Today)
