Open to play Day-Night Test in Australia, be it Perth or Gabba: Virat Kohli
The Indian cricket team has been on a dominating run in the Test cricket and are currently the table-toppers of the World Test Championships with 360 points. From the past two years, Kohli and Co. are ruling at the top of ICC Test rankings. With the Pink Ball Test against Bangladesh last year, Team India has also gained some experience in playing the longest format Day-Night conditions.
From quite a few time, the speculations around India and Australia playing the Day-Night Test later this year is going on air and the Aussie skipper Tim Paine has sparked the rumour during Pakistan Test series.
Ahead of the first ODI match against Australia in Mumbai, Kohli claimed that India are ready for the Day-Night Test challenge in Australia whether it's Gabba or Perth.
"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," Virat Kohli said in a press conference
"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," Kohli added.
India had defeated the Kangaroos 2-1 at their home in their last meeting in Tests but Kohli felt that the Australia team they will be facing this year will be much stronger than what they played last.
David Warner and Steve Smith were not in the squad the last time as they were serving their one-year ball-tampering ban. However, they have both now returned and have been in top form while Marnus Labuschagne is also amongst the runs.
"India-Australia is not a new thing. 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. To be fair, last time around their players were not that experienced if you take out David Warner and Steve Smith. 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. So 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 said.
