Mumbai: India chief coach Ravi Shastri on Wednesday urged the squad to embrace the challenges awaiting them in the tour to South Africa, as he insisted that they have prepared well.

India will play South Africa in three Tests, six One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). The first Test begins on January 5.

Test matches in South Africa have always been tough for India who have never won a Test series there.

"We know how tough this tour of South Africa is. That's the beauty about their profession -- wanting challenges and embracing it and that's what we are looking for," Shastri said at the pre-departure media conference.

"We toured Australia in 2014 and we did a pretty good job. We have done well in England. In 2015, we toured Sri Lanka and it had great tracks on which the ball seamed and swung. So preparation has been good." 

Shastri said that the players are playing together for the last few years and that will help them flourish in South Africa.

"These boys have been on the road together for the last 4-5 years -- the same team. The nucleus has been the same so that should help a long way," the former all-rounder added.

"One and half years will define Indian cricket. Tour of South Africa, Australia and England. This will be a better team after this 18 months."

Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who skipped the One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty-20 International (T20I) series against Sri Lanka to get married, said the team is on the right track and he has full faith in the abilities of his team.

Many experts said that this is the toughest tour of India due to the playing conditions. To which Kohli replied: " Cricket is played with bat and ball. Conditions don't matter. I have no doubt in the ability of the team. We are on the right track."

In South Africa, the batsmen will face extra bounce and pace from the surface. The weather conditions there are also different as compared to the sub-continent.

"You need to play cricket for a long period of time to win abroad. The hunger this time is the same. We want to do what we couldn't the last time around," he added.

Kohli, who was away from cricket from after the third Test match against Sri Lanka in December, said it is not difficult to switch to cricket.

"I was away for something which was much more important in my life but I had been training. Switching back to cricket was not difficult at all. Cricket is in my blood," the Delhi batsman said.

The 29-year-old also said that adjusting to the weather conditions in South Africa won't be a big problem for the players.

"We have many days to get used to conditions there. More than 2-3 sessions to replicate Test situations and we get to know how the conditions are at different sessions of the day. We will try and follow those procedures," he added.

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New Delhi (PTI): The much-awaited decision about the new chief minister of Delhi will be made in the BJP legislature party meeting to be held at the party's Delhi unit office on Wednesday evening.

The BJP has come to power after 26 years, defeating the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls.

Preparations were complete for the legislature party meeting that is expected to begin around 7 pm at Delhi BJP office, the party leaders said.

The 48 BJP MLAs will choose the Leader of the House in the Delhi Assembly who will become the chief minister.

The meeting will be held in the presence of BJP's central observers, whose names are yet to be declared. The new chief minister after being chosen by the party MLAs will meet Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena at the Raj Niwas to stake claim to power.

Meanwhile, preparations are in full swing for a grand swearing-in ceremony of the new government at Ramleela Ground on Thursday afternoon.

Around 50,000 people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues and the chief minister of NDA ruled states among other guests, will attend the ceremony.

The names doing the rounds for the new chief minister include Parvesh Verma, who defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal; former Delhi BJP presidents Vijender Gupta and Satish Upadhyay; and other leaders such as Pawan Sharma, Ashish Sood, Rekha Gupta and Shikha Rai.

The names of Ravinder Indraj Singh, the MLA from Bawana (SC) seat, and Kailash Gangwal, who won the Madipur (SC) seat for the BJP for the first time, are also being discussed.

Many within the party believe that the BJP leadership could choose a "dark horse" as Delhi's next chief minister, a strategy the party opted for in Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.