India’s Test captain Virat Kohli believes the team will take a lot of inspiration from the third Test victory in Johannesburg in January 2018, which came in the ‘toughest of conditions’.
India have to play three Test matches against South Africa at Centurion from 26 December.
In a virtual pre-departure press conference on Wednesday, Virat said his team is motivated to do well and win series at a place where India have never won before.
We can take a lot of inspiration from this (Johannesburg 2018 win). We probably won in the toughest conditions of that tour. So that should give us a lot of confidence. If we start with the right mindset and confidence and belief, we can definitely face any challenge that comes our way and achieve a lot from it,” Kohli said.
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“South Africa is a place where we haven’t won a series yet, so we are very motivated to do that and that mindset has always been to go out and win a series in any country. We don’t think about winning just one Test match here and there and we will do our best to ensure that we keep contributing towards this cause. We will draw a lot of inspiration and confidence from that win on the last tour.”
In all, India have played 20 Tests in South Africa, winning only three, and on their last visit in 2018, lost the series 2-1. The teams that have defeated South Africa at home have been Australia, England and Sri Lanka. Kohli is aware of South Africa’s challenge for his team, taking into account the past events.
“South Africa was really the beginning for us as a team that started to believe that we could win overseas. We made it well in England and then Australia was an accumulation of all that effort. South Africa represents a challenge of a different kind. Like I said, there is a lot of momentum and bounce in the wickets. You need to do your best to be able to perform there and score tough runs, something that we have tried to do as a team but probably left ourselves a little too much to do at certain times When the sessions have gone bad. ,
“It is something that we have handled very well in recent times with more experience and people understanding how to play in these kind of conditions and against which bowlers how to change their innings during the day so that they Can bat long. I think we are in a very good position in terms of experience, belief and confidence that this time we can do something special and get results as a team and overcome the toughest situations to win the series Huh.”
Kohli signed off in the absence of a warm-up match in South Africa, emphasizing on central wicket practice and match stimuli for the team. “Center-wicket practice, match simulation as much as possible. I think things like this really help when you play in conditions which are probably the most challenging to bat in my opinion because of the pace and bounce and even with swing the conditions can be quite tricky. “
“We have seen this happen in South Africa. So, I think we have as much simulation as we can, understanding which areas we’re hitting the ball with, getting in good shape. With bowlers getting good, with slips, what areas they want to bowl and narrow down those easy singles and boundary options. When you don’t have warm-up games all those kinds of things help get you in a good place.”
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