IND vs SA | We are very motivated to win Test series in South Africa, says Virat Kohli

Team India are scheduled to tour South Africa for three Tests and as many ODIs, and the action will start with the first red-ball fixture in Centurion from December 26. The BCCI have already announced an 18-member Test squad for the three-match series. 

India are heading to the red-ball series against the Proteas without the services of senior players - Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja. Shubhman Gill and Axar Patel, who have had impressive starts to their careers have been ruled out with injuries. While Rohit Sharma sustained a hamstring injury during the practice session in India, Ravindra Jadeja suffered a ligament tear during the home series against New Zealand.

India are yet to win a Test series in South Africa, and have won just three matches in the country. Last time when India toured South Africa, the visitors lost the series 2-1. The Virat Kohli-led side displayed a brilliant performance in the last fixture, and handed a 63-run defeat to the hosts. Kohli ended the series as the highest run-getter with 286 runs from three matches. Pacers Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah scalped 15 and 14 wickets respectively. 

Meanwhile, Kohli has stated that his team will take motivation from their last Test victory in South Africa during the 2018 tour and is confident that his men can definitely stand up to any challenge during the series.

"We can take a lot of motivation from that. We probably won in the toughest conditions on that tour. That should give us a lot of confidence. If we start off well, then we can definitely stand up to any challenge that comes our way and take a lot of heart from it," Kohli told reporters prior to the team's departure from India on Wednesday.

"South Africa is one place where we have not won a series yet so we are very motivated to do that. The mindset is always to go out there and win a series in any country that we play. We don't think of just winning a Test match here and there anymore and we will do our absolute best to make sure we keep contributing towards that cause. We will take a lot of motivation and belief from that victory."

The India tour of South Africa in 2018 was Virat Kohli’s first away assignment as a full-time captain for an all-format tour, after MS Dhoni had stepped down from the leadership role in the limited-overs formats in January 2017. After the conclusion of the South Africa tour in 2018, India registered historic Test victories in Australia and England. 

Kohli reckoned that South Africa presents a different kind of challenge, but added that his team got experienced batsmen who can tackle the challenge from the opposition bowlers in the upcoming tour.

"South Africa was the start for us as a team to start believing that we can win series overseas," he said. "We built it up nicely in England (in 2018) and then Australia was nice accumulation of all that effort. South Africa presents a different kind of challenge, the wickets have a lot of pace and bounce. You need to be at your absolute best to be able to perform there and get runs. It is something we have tried to do as a team but probably left ourselves a bit too much to at certain times where sessions have gone very bad if they went bad it.

"This is something we have controlled in the recent past with more experience and guys understanding how to play in these conditions against the quick bowlers and how to transition their innings through the day so they can bat long. I think we are very well placed in terms of experience and belief that we can do something special as a team... overcome probably the toughest conditions and win a series there."