'India can be the best in the world' - Kohli

Virat Kohli's performances in the last two years have been seen as a case of his recognising his time had come. He worked hard on his game for the conditions he was likely to get, eliminating every small weakness as he went along. He became obsessed with his fitness so his body became strong enough to match his ambition. At the start of a big home season, with conditions to their liking, with the required ammunition in their bag, and with batsmen world over struggling to play quality spin, Kohli sounded like a captain who felt his team's time has come as well.

"We believe we certainly have what it takes to be the best team in the world," he said. "We definitely believe that. One area we have tapped into is belief. It's something that a lot of young players can lack coming into international cricket. There can be a lot of insecurities: 'Whether I'll play in the next game or whether my position is secure or not.' It's all about getting them rid of that feeling. When you step on to the pitch, you need to tell yourself, 'I own this position for the next eight-ten years in Test cricket for India.'

"That's the only way you can go out there, be confident and express yourself. Express how good you are, and that's what this team has done. That's why we've been able to win seven-odd Test matches in the last 13 or 14 that we played. [It's] because we wanted to go out there and play bold cricket and take some risks. More often than not if you're fearless, the results will fall your way because you're willing to take that extra risk in the course of the game. I certainly feel that this team has what it takes to be the best."

Just like he has done with his batting, Kohli said he wanted his team to become obsessed with preparation so that at crunch time their strength and skill don't desert them.

"What it requires is sustained concentration, attention to detail, practising the same way every day… You know, doing boring things," he said. "At this level you need to be boring if you want to be successful. As simple as that. Your training, your practice, the way you prepare for games should not change. Whoever can do that for a sustained period of time will obviously be a very good side, and this team has the potential to do that."

In the last season, when India beat South Africa 3-0, the frontline batsmen didn't finish the job; India struggled against spin themselves and had to be bailed out by the lower order on more than the odd occasion. On Wednesday, Kohli said work has been done to overcome that.

"I think what's really important is to find the balance between being positive and being solid at the same time," he said. "If someone is bowling a good spell you want to pay respect to the bowler, but not so much that you get under pressure. You don't want to defend too much and eventually feel like, 'I could have attacked more,' when you get out. So it's a right balance of putting the bowler under pressure and at the same time respecting the good balls that he bowls.

"And that requires a lot of concentration. We have to be more watchful and more focussed throughout the day. There is no room for complacency; you cannot relax at any stage. In Test cricket, half an hour of bad decision-making can cost you the whole Test. So that's one thing that we have worked on.

"That's why we work on our fitness levels so that the body can support what we want to do. To bat through the whole day, or two days, you need a fit physique and that's what the boys have been working on and it's been going really good. That has certainly improved our focus levels and we have been able to play out difficult situations in the best way possible. So it's a combination of a lot of things, but I think the key is to maintain that balance between being positive and at the same time, being solid and playing through a difficult situation for the team."

To prepare for the 2013-14 season, when the bulk of India's Tests were to be played overseas, the players had concentrated on how to play fast bowling as best as they could and in doing so they "sort of didn't pay that much attention to spin." Kohli admitted as much, but went on to say the same mistake would not be made now.

"We have lost a Test match in Sri Lanka because we could not play spin as well as we wanted to," he said. "But we rectified that. The team wants to improve in that aspect of the game. It is something that we surely need to get stronger at. What has happened is that there was so much being built up about us not being able to play well away from home that we kept focusing on playing fast bowling, and we got really good at it. We countered conditions really well in England, in bursts, in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

"We sort of didn't pay that much attention to spin. That was one area we could have worked more on. Now we are putting in more effort, to face the spinners longer in nets and practising small little things by ourselves - someone might sweep, someone might play off the back foot, someone might step out - whatever it is. We are trying to improve that part of our game slowly. If you want to be a champion side, you don't want to give the opposition any window to get into the game. The good thing is we are playing a lot of Test cricket so on the sidelines we can keep working on that every day and surely that improvement will happen."

As Kohli spoke at his press conference before the first Test of the Indian season, the ICC presented Pakistan the mace for being the No. 1 ranked side in Lahore. Kohli knows if his side can replicate what he did when he realised his time had come, that mace is likely to be in India before the season is done.