Virat Kohli’s form will be crucial for India to do well in Australia.
Former Australia player Shane Watson and Brad Haddin believe Pat Cummins & Co should not get into any confrontational approach with Virat Kohli in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With another big series between these two evenly matched teams around the corner, all eyes are on Kohli, who has been struggling off late.
But over the years, Kohli has enjoyed batting in Australia, where he averages 54.08 with six centuries. And Watson and Haddin, who have been part of Kohli’s two tours to Australia and have had verbal spats on the field believe it is the intensity that brings the best out of him.
Speaking on Willow Talk Cricket Podcast, Watson picked what worked for Kohli Down Under. “The one thing that I know of Virat is… because the fire burns so brightly and deep inside him, the intensity he brings to every ball that he is engaged in a game has been super human. But there has been in recent times where moments in this career that fire has started to go out because it is just so hard to maintain that intensity in every moment he is involved in a game. And that is where Australia have to leave him alone and hope he doesn’t bring the intensity that 9 out of 10 intensity to every ball,” Watson said.
India’s Virat Kohli bats in the nets at the Wankhede Stadium during the series against New Zealand. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
In successive tours Down Under, Kohli’s aggressive, confrontational approach has led to tempers being raised, and the Indian batsman has thrived in those moments. “We have seen that when he has had success in Australia he is up and above for everything in the middle — every ball he is up for every single moment. You can see the fierce intensity that he brings and if he gets that then it shuts everything else out. That is when he is at his absolute best. If there is stuff happening around and that intensity is not there, that is when you will see the not so best version of Virat. So from Australian perspective let’s hope we get to see that version of him,” Watson said.
Even his former teammate Haddin acknowledged it while talking about his 169 at the MCG in 2014. “I remember playing at the MCG and going in at lunch, was standing with Mitch (Johnson) and he was in one of those zones and was confrontational to us. Then he got himself in a bubble and we couldn’t get him out and said to Boof, we need to something because he is controlling the whole tempo of the game. Anyway, we went after him called him spoiled little brat, it got to him a bit and we had a missed chance then he got back into the bubble,” Haddin recalled.
And speaking of his form, Haddin wasn’t willing to read too much into it. “The only people who will know where his game is at are those in the inner circle and he will be the same. If is sitting there with fire in his belly thinking ‘I don’t like Australia’ and he plays against us that sometimes. And you will know as soon as he walks out — he will be out there looking for a confrontation and don’t give him one,” he said.
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