Boosted by the arrival of their new coach Ravi Shastri, the Indian team departed for Sri Lanka on Wednesday high on confidence for a long tour featuring three Tests, five ODIs and a lone T20 International, starting on July 26.
The Virat Kohli-led side's depature was slightly held up on Wednesday evening courtesy of a flight delay and some of the players made most of it by clicking selfies inside the aircraft.
Speaking about the tour, which begins with a practice match on Friday, July 21, Kohli said the team's last trip to Sri Lanka two years was a landmark one.
“I think that tour for us was a landmark tour. If you look at the average age of that team a couple of years back, obviously the players have matured from then on, it’s been 24 months. That tour for us was a sort of start of the belief system that we can win away from home and we do have the side required to win away from home,” Kohli said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
India clinched a come-from-behind 2-1 series victory in 2015 to register their first series away from home in four years and also their first series win in Sri Lanka in 22 years.
Check out the pictures posted by some of the Indian players on Twitter:
2015 tour of Sri Lanka was a landmark for us: Kohli