'Knew something big will happen after losing those two series' - Ravi Shastri on India's historic 2018-19 triumph against Australia

The captain-coach duo of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri played an influential role in India's Test victories outside home. After losing the five-match Test series to England by 1-4 in 2018, the Indian team went on to beat Australia in Australia by 2-1.

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During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-19, India went on to win their first Test series down under, and Kohli went on to create history. Thus, Ravi Shastri recently drew light on the phase, which saw the Asian side perform well outside home.

While speaking to Shoaib Akhtar on his YouTube channel, the former head coach of India remembered his comment before saying that India had lost two close overseas series in 2018 - against South Africa 2-1, and how it was then when he realized the team's potential.

He said that he was ridiculed for making the “best travelling team” remark and mentioned the fact that he and the then Test captain Kohli had their pace attack in place. Thus, the former head coach of India also spoke about their overseas tour in 2018.

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Australia is probably the toughest place to play: Ravi Shastri

“I think the endeavour was to make this the best travelling team in the world. I said that back in 2017. People started laughing. But indirectly it was a challenge to the boys saying that you can do it, you know, once we had our pace-bowling attack in place. But we got hit by the bullets. We lost a close series in South Africa 2-1. We lost in England as well, 4-1, which could have been 3-2 in our favour with a little bit of luck. But after losing those two series I knew that we are on the way. Now something big will happen," said Ravi Shastri.

Shastri then spoke about how he and Kohli stressed a lot on fitness. He also felt that Australia was one of the toughest places to play in the world. Thus, the 59-year-old stated that winning down under was the ultimate prize.

"We were strong and fit. Gave a lot of attention to fitness, me and Virat both and it did wonders. And then we turned the corner in Australia. Australia is probably the toughest place in the world to play. They are born to play hard cricket. I knew if we can compete here, and put it across to them, it will be the ultimate.” he added.