Does Virat Kohli deserve a place in the Indian Test team for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia? If only stats were to be considered, the talismanic batter might not get the selectors’ nod for the assignment Down Under. However, the reputation Virat has built over the years, especially through his knocks in Australia, makes him a player who cannot be dropped. In the recently concluded Test series against New Zealand, Kohli didn’t even cross the 100-run mark cumulatively. Yet, Australian cricket legend Brett Lee feels Kohli is the man to watch out in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“He’s got an Australian mentality, a never-say-die attitude. He doesn’t mind getting into a scrap. He doesn’t mind having a crack,” Lee told Fox Cricket.
“There has been a lot of conjecture around his form recently, but I’m not worried about that. I know with Kohli, he’s got the experience underneath his belt,” he said.
Australia remains one of Kohli’s favourite hunting grounds in Test cricket. The Delhi-born batter has amassed 1352 runs at an impressive average of 54.08 Down Under in the longest format of the game.
Virat also has a whopping six centuries on Australian soil, a feat no other Indian batter has been able to match. The statistics, hence, prove how much Kohli enjoys batting in the Australian conditions.
“He may have only got 90 runs in the three-Test series against the Kiwis, but who cares? When he comes out here, he has a great record in Australia,” Lee concluded his point, taking a sharp swipe at Virat’s critics.
Earlier, Lee had put Kohli in the same bracket as the great Sachin Tendulkar, recalling his experiences of bowling against the latter.
“There has been a lot of speculation and conjecture around Kohli’s form and I can promise you that when he gets out here, he will be raring to go, because he is a superstar,” he said.
“It is an old cliche where you don’t want to try to play against the name. You try to treat him, with all due respect, as (another) batsman. And it was the same when I was bowling against Sachin Tendulkar. You can get overawed by the stature of the guy and the history and what he has achieved, but the thing with Kohli is that he loves to get into a scrap. And I mean that in a nice way. He loves to get himself up for the competition.
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