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I don't see any reason why we can't beat Aussies: Virat Kohli

On eve of departure for tour Down Under, stand-in captain Kohli says his young team are eager to do well and make name for themselves

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Virat Kohli during the pre-departure press conference before the tour of Australia in Mumbai on Friday
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Only six players from the 19-strong squad that left for Australia on Friday have played in that country. However, this side, with an average age of 27, want to make a mark in one of the toughest cricket tours.

Led by a confident 26-year-old batsman, Team India will be full of energy when the first match of the four-Test series starts in Brisbane on December 4. As always, Virat Kohli is only looking at the positives. For support, he has, among others, one of the sharpest cricketing brains in director of cricket Ravi Shastri, who has seen it all as a player and commentator.

On their last tour of Australia, India lost 0-4. The current side looks like one that will take the fight to the opposition.

Any encouraging result should be taken as a morale-boosting result ahead of the World Cup.

The team will be without the regular captain MS Dhoni in the Brisbane Test. It will also miss five seniors — three of them to retirement — from the squad of 2011.

"I am very confident of the ability of the side. The kind of composure and character that the guys have shown in the last one month, everyone is keen to go out there and compete in the playing conditions in Australia and the tough challenge that it brings with it. I am sure everyone is ready for the challenge," Kohli, flanked by Shastri and team manager Arshad Ayub, said at the pre-departure press conference here on Friday.

"We can't go there with the mindset of going out there and then thinking we will see what happens. You have to think of winning every single minute of the day, before the tour and after going there also.

"That's how you will compete with a team like Australia and actually have good chances of beating them in their home ground. India have done that in the past (in Australia) and I see no reason as to why it can't happen again.

"All these guys in the team are aggressive and hungry to go out there and perform and make a name for themselves."

Kohli did reasonably well on that tour in 2011-12, his second overseas sojourn in his first year in international cricket. He scored 75 in Perth and 116 in Adelaide in back-to-back innings.

"That tour was a milestone in my career. I was a different person and a different character when I left the shores of Australia. That is something every cricketer should look forward to and I am confident that this team has it in them."

Kohli has a century each in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and is keen to add more.

"The last tour of Australia was a strong change. I had never experienced the aggression and that kind of an atmosphere. I will try to impart that experience to other players on what to expect and what sort of mindset to go with. Once we go with a negative mindset, it will keep catching up. You have to be positive every single day."

Kohli did not ascribe much importance to failures. "I don't think the team has ever outrightly promised anything to anyone. As a cricketer, I don't see the tour of England or Australia as an engineering exam that if I fail, I am not going to do anything in life. It is just another game of cricket that you play, whether it is Australia, England or South Africa," he said.

Many felt that the abandoned Test series against the West Indies was a blessing in disguise, especially with the World Cup not far away. Kohli begged to differ. "We would have been able to test ourselves in a Test match scenario (against the West Indies), how you bat in a particular scenario even though the conditions might differ (from Australia)."

Kohli did not subscribe to the 'tigers at home, lambs abroad' theory. "It is the (media's) opinion. I have nothing to say on this."

Kohli believed that his fast bowlers will pose a lot of questions to the opposition, what with Umesh Yadav, Md Shami and Varun Aaron bowling quick to complement Bhuvneshwar Kumar's swing bowling.

"Any day it's an advantage when you have four bowlers who can bowl 140-plus because then you can compete on those pitches. You have two bowlers up front — one who can swing the ball and one who is bowling 140 and then you have two more coming in who can also bowl at 140-plus for those other two spells.

"So the batsman is never sure about going after the bowlers and that's exactly what you want. It's going to be a massive factor in Australia."

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