New Delhi: India captain Virat Kohli, on Friday, brushed aside all speculation about his fitness saying he was “feeling fresh and ready to go” for the tour of Ireland and England.

The Indian team is leaving for Ireland on Saturday to play a couple of T20Is in Dublin. Thereafter, India will move to England to play three T20Is, three ODIs and a five-match Test series.

Addressing the media, Kohli said: “I am 100 per cent ready to go. The neck is fine now. I have had six to seven sessions in Mumbai and I am absolutely ready. I went through the fitness test as well and the body is feeling fine.

“I am actually very excited to get back on the field… A very rare feeling when you play so much of cricket. But in hindsight, these breaks really help. It makes you feel fresh and gets you pumped up to get back out there again,” Kohli remarked.

The Team India captain initially had planned for a County stint with Surrey but had to drop the idea after the IPL because of a neck injury. Asked whether not being able to play for Surrey was a setback to his preparations, Kohli said the issue could also be looked at from a different angle.

“In hindsight, when I look at it now, it’s the best thing that has happened for me. I wanted to go as this is the place where we haven’t played so much. There is also a big gap of four years and you forget what the conditions were when you played the last time.

“I would have gone there feeling 90 per cent rather than 110 per cent that I feel right now. I would rather be like this as I needed to be fresh for the tour. Although not intended, but this is the best thing to have happened,” he said.

Kohli’s individual performance was not good when India toured England four years ago but the Indian captain said things had changed over the years.

“As captain of the team, I would like to put in performances myself. I think a lot of people have been thinking about the 2014 tour for too long now. 

“We played the Champions Trophy in England last year, not in Bangladesh. And after what happened during the Tests in South Africa, we are looking to play difficult cricket because that is the only way we can improve.”

When pointed out that the ongoing England-Australia ODI series is proving to a high scoring one, Kohli said flat pitches and use of two new balls are making things difficult for the bowlers.

“It’s brutal for the bowlers… Hardly any room for attacking cricket is left from the bowlers’ point of view if you don’t provide pitches that assist them with the new balls,” he said.

“I have played ODI cricket at the time when only one white ball was allowed. It used to be a massive factor towards the latter part of the innings. As a batsman, it was a lot more challenging. It is very difficult for the bowlers and they have no way out, unless you have wrist spinners in the side, which is something we have found out. But not every side has that…” the Indian captain said.

[On Thursday, Sachin Tendulkar also spoke on similar lines. “Having 2 new balls in one day cricket is a perfect recipe for disaster as each ball is not given the time to get old enough to reverse. We haven’t seen reverse swing, an integral part of the death overs, for a long time. #ENGvsAUS,” Sachin tweeted.]

Kohli said it was wrong to assume the swinging deliveries only trouble the Indian batsmen. “The swinging ball has the tendency to trouble the best of batsmen.

“But then that helps our fast bowlers as well. As a batting unit, it will be a challenge to square off against the swinging ball, but by the time the Test series arrives, we won’t feel like we are playing an away series because by then, we would have already played plenty of limited-overs cricket,” he pointed out.

Asked about his personal goal, Kohli said: “I was asked this on the last tour of England as well. I said I want to walk around and have coffee. So my thinking is different when I go on tour as I try to literally to enjoy the country.

“I know when I am in a good zone I play well. I can’t think like other people that oh I need to do well. I know what I have to face out there in the middle,” he said.

Asked what should the team strategy, Kohli sounded irritated. 

“Strategy will remain the same that it was in all the previous series. Strategy never changes from series to series. It only happens with those who don’t have patience. If we start thinking like you people then it will be a problem,” he said.