Virat Kohli has a vision and believes that more than chasing personal glory what counts is the kind of leadership legacy he leaves behind.

“Being the captain, it is my job to make sure that the next lot is also ready. A lot of the other people might not look at it that way, but your job as a captain is not only to look after the team right now, but also to prepare a team that you leave behind when you eventually pass it onto someone else,” he said on Monday, the eve of the first ODI versus Australia.

Virat felt the current Australian side is stronger than the one that toured India last year and staged a come-from-behind 3-2 victory.

“They are a stronger side than the one that came to India last time, but they still won that series. In the series before that, they played a full strength side but we won the series.

“You can have the most experienced and the most skilled players in your squad but if you don’t play well as a team, you won’t win. That’s what happened to us last time and when we went to Australia, it’s what happened to them,” said Virat.

“That shows you how competitive the series between these two teams are and it’s never a dominating series, the margin is always 3-2 or 2-1. May be five games would have been exciting.

“Australians have played so much IPL, they are pretty experienced in the conditions here. It’s always a good and a tough challenge playing Australia, because of the skill set and the mind set they bring on to the field,” the India captain remarked.

He also insisted that when India plays Australia, the competitive flavour takes precedence over the relevance of the bilateral series.

“When you are playing Australia, you don’t look at the relevance of the series. It’s about playing against the best. The way they are playing their cricket now, after Steve (Smith) and David (Warner) have come back, it’s pretty intense. They are challenging every team and they are dominating few teams as well,” he said.

“We, along with Australia, are probably the top two sides, as far as balance is concerned. Whether it’s relevant or irrelevant that’s for people to decide. But we as a team are excited to play Australia, to test ourselves against the best.

“But in the year of the World Cup, as many games we play, it is going to benefit us, especially white-ball cricket. From that point of view, we are looking forward to playing this series.”