India’s Virat Kohli at the at Wankhede Stadium during the series against New Zealand. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has backed Virat Kohli to be among runs in the five-match Border Gavaskar Trophy and believes that the Indian cricket team’s talisman will draw confidence from his past record Down Under.
There has been plenty of scrutiny on Kohli and his form coming into the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Kohli has just two centuries and 11 half-centuries in his last 60 Test innings. In the six Tests he has played in 2024, Kohli has averaged only 22.72.
Gavaskar though believes that the Indian batter will enter the India vs Australia series hungry.
“Because he hasn’t got runs against New Zealand, he’ll be very, very hungry. Even in that Adelaide Test, where in the second innings we got all out for 36, in the first innings, Kohli got 70-plus runs (74 runs) before being run out. He’s consistently performed at Adelaide, so it’s a familiar ground for him. Before Adelaide, it’s Perth, where he played one of the finest Test centuries in 2018-19. A terrific hundred. Having performed on these grounds, he’ll feel that extra bit of confidence. Of course, you need a bit of luck at the start, but if he gets off to a good start, he will get big runs,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Meanwhile, former Australian cricketers have been keen to talk up Kohli’s stats heading into the series.
Ricky Ponting, in the ICC review for example, has questioned Kohli’s form heading into the series against Australia.
“I saw a stat the other day about Virat—it said he’s only scored two Test hundreds in the last five years. That didn’t seem right to me, but if that is accurate, then that’s a concern. There probably wouldn’t be anyone else still playing international cricket as a top-order batsman who’s only scored two Test match hundreds in five years,” Ponting had said.
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