We have nothing to prove to anyone: Virat Kohli

Mumbai, December 27: Winning Test matches outside the sub-continent has been an 'Achilles Heel' for the Indian teams over the years. But Virat Kohli made it clear that they have "nothing to prove to anyone" during the upcoming South Africa series, starting from January 5.

India have not won a single Test series in the 'Rainbow Nation' for the past 25 years, starting back from the inaugural one in 1992.

We Have Nothing To Prove To Anyone - Kohli

"We have got rid of all the mental pressures of touring abroad and wanting to prove to people. We are not wanting to prove anything to anyone and our duty is to go out there, give our 100 per cent effort for the country and get the result that we want to," Kohli said at the pre-departure press conference of the Indian team on Wednesday (December 27).

The skipper said that one needs to be realistic that "sometimes the team will get results and sometimes it won't".

"When you do things in conditions that are more challenging, that gives you more job satisfaction, that is for sure," the skipper said.

"It all depends on the kind of mindset you get into as batsman. Any place, even Indian conditions can be very difficult if you are not in a good frame of mind, so cricket is played with ball and bat and if you are not there mentally, it does not matter the conditions you are playing in.

"You need to take up challenges mentally and then every conditions seem like home conditions. If you get accustomed to where you are going and you start feeling comfortable embracing the culture, people, it becomes easier," he said.

He had scored a century in Johannesburg during the 2013-14 tour and he attributed it to his urge for embracing the challenge.

"I only played Test cricket once in South Africa but I was looking forward to it. (Cheteshwar) Pujara was as well, so was Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane). So we ended up doing well because we were excited about what we were going to do and that excitement is very important to maintain."

Kohli agreed that they haven't played a lot outside sub-continent of late but the current crop is confident of a good show.

"You need to play really good cricket for a very long period of time to win series and that is something that we are pretty excited about and we want to go out there and express ourselves. The most important thing is that we are enjoying each other's company and that's exactly what we are looking to do," Kohli said.

The current leader of the SA pace attack is young Kagiso Rabada with both Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel making international comebacks after lay-offs due to injuries.

"The bowling attack back then compared to now what South Africa has was more experienced and we did really well against them. We almost won the Test in Jo'burg (Johannesburg), it was a close game, we lost in Durban, but we played some really good Test cricket.

"The bowling and the batting has come a long way, all the guys are much more experienced now, but the hunger remains the same, we still want to go back and try to do what we couldn't do last time around," he said.