India vs Australia | India can beat anyone anywhere, believes Virat Kohli

India ended a 71-year drought in Australia as far as winning Tests is concerned as they managed to win the four-match Test series 2-1 after the Sydney game ended in a draw. Virat Kohli became the first Asian captain to win a Test series Down Under and that is a record to be surely proud of. Kohli, in the post-match press conference, hailed the efforts of the Indian cricketers in the series and called the day as the proudest moment in his cricketing career.

"When you work hard and prepare for something, as a team we want results. In the last 12 months, the number of tosses we have lost, if you really want to see our performances in them, you will understand what kind of cricket we have played. The tosses that we have won, in those games the oppositions haven't come close to us. I am not saying it in arrogance but we believe so much as a team that we can beat anyone anywhere,” expressed Kohli during the press conference, reported India Today.

"We knew that as a team and eventually when we have won the biggest series in Indian history, we can't express how happy we are that everyone's hard work has reaped rewards in Australia and we did what no other team before us could do. Like I said, this is the proudest moment for me since the time I have been playing.”

Youngsters like debutant Mayank Agarwal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hanuma Vihari stepped up for the team in the series and played a very crucial role in the series win. Agarwal struck a couple of fifties while Kuldeep was brilliant with the five-wicket haul in Sydney. Kohli mentioned about Vihari’s role in the top of the batting order at the MCG as he opened the innings with debutant Agarwal as India chose to go with a new opening pair in the third game and pointed out that such instances have as much value as a century or 80s.

"I am very happy for the team because it has a young bunch of guys and to have that belief and drive for excellence on a daily basis and to get a reward like this, we definitely have to be happy. Although changing history or creating history is still I would say not what I'm thinking of, it's pure satisfaction of hard work of 12 months and to understand what we believed in has been proven right and regardless of the whole world against you, if you are striving with a good intent, God's going to reward you. So that's what I'm more happy about," Kohli said.

"It was a team effort through and through and that is what we strive for - to play well as a team. Single spells and single innings don't win you games in cricket, especially Test cricket and this is a team that doesn't play for single innings and single spells. We play to make the team win. If you ask me to single out a contribution, for me Vihari playing 70 balls with the new ball in MCG is as big as anyone getting a hundred or anyone crossing 70 or 80. That's how we recognise contribution, we don't look at contributions as something that goes up on the honours board and if you want to win a series like this, you have to play well as a team. I would say it was a total team performance."

Speaking about the team’s preparation and performance in the year 2018, the skipper commented, “Our journey started in South Africa and it's not only the preparation for this tour but we figures out the things that were required to win in Australia, which was going to be the toughest, we knew it. So we just worked on rectifying the mistakes. We didn't work on feeling good about the things we did well, as a team we focussed on the things we didn't do well and those things don't sound too good but you need to accept them to improve as a team.”