The three-match Test series against Sri Lanka will be Virat Kohli's first full length assignment as the captain of the India Test team. And he will be eager to register his first Test match victory as a captain of the young Indian side.
Team India interim coach Ravi Shastri believes that India will succeed against Sri Lanka in the Test series under the leadership of Kohli.
"Virat is young. He has got that exuberance of youth. With all these tours, he is only going to grow and experienced. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he has got some real qualities of being a leader. This experience will help him immensely," Shastri told reporters at a press conference on Monday at Galle.
Shastri also stressed on the fact that India have spent plenty of time overseas playing a number of games against several nations but it is high time that they start winning and change the recent away record.
"You don't come to a cricket ground to draw a match so you play a brand of cricket where you look to take the game forward and you look to take 20 wickets, that is paramount. You have got to think how you can take 20 wickets to take the game forward and win the game," Shastri added.
The Sri Lankan side at this moment is going through a transitional phase as their big guns like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara have hung up boots. Although, they will get the services of Sangakkara for the first two matches in this series, that will not be enough for Sri Lanka. They will have to play as a cohesive unit in order to beat India at their home conditions. Sri Lanka have suffered defeats across all three formats of the international game against Pakistan recently and they would look to forget that and move ahead.
Shastri feels that India have a good chance against the unsettled Sri Lanka side, which is unlike the side India had won against 22 years ago under the leadership of Mohammad Azharuddin.
"I think they had some very good sides in the past and they play very well as a unit and as a team. When I came here first in the 80s they won that series 1-0. They had a pretty decent attack. And right through those middle years they had Muttiah Muralitharan who was a massive influence. Of course you have Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara coming in after that, but again Murali was the main guy as it is about taking 20 wickets," Shastri added.
