Aakash Chopra has claimed that Virat Kohli is a different beast when he is facing Australia in Tests and expects the star batter to score atleast two centuries in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Kohli has a phenomenal record against the Aussies in the longest format of the game. In 20 matches against Australia, the Indian star has scored 1682 runs at an average of 48.05. He has also scored seven hundreds against them.
“This is the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and if we have to do well in this, it is almost imperative for Virat Kohli to score runs. There is one thing about Virat – he becomes a different beast when he plays against Australia.”
“He activates the beast mode slightly. His best performances have generally come against this team. So you will have the expectations once again,” said Chopra.
Chopra said that Kohli needs to be mindful of misreading the length of left-arm spinners, which he has been doing lately. He went on to say that he is expecting the star batter to score atleast two centuries against Australia.
“The only thing, which I felt in the last series as well, was where he played a full delivery from Taijul Islam on the back foot and it went and hit the stumps, and Mitchell Santner also dismissed him similarly in the ODIs. That’s one thing where he has gotten out early a few times.”
“So he will have to keep that slightly in his mind, playing the full delivery on the back foot against a bowler who takes the ball slightly away from him. Besides that, it is a four-Test series, so I am expecting at least two centuries. That’s not an unfair ask. He is Virat Kohli, run-machine Kohli. Hopefully he will score runs,” said Chopra.
