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It would not be an overstatement to say that in the few decades, Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been at par with the Ashes rivalry. Virat Kohli deserves a lot of credit for the hard-fought contests between the two teams. As a part of Indian contingent landed in Australia for the five-Test series, the newspapers in the country seemed to be celebrating Kohli's arrival almost expecting him to be his 2018 self who believed in giving it back to the Aussies.
The Daily Telegraph used 'Yugo ki ladai (Fight For The Ages)' in golden font with Kohli at the centre. The photo used is even bigger than that of Australia's World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final-winning captain Pat Cummins. Adelaide's The Advertiser used Kohli's picture with the Indian flag in the background. It also had Kohli's statistics on the bottom half of the page.
In addition, The Advertiser used 'The New King' for young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. The left-handed batter is touted to do well in Australian conditions. A few Australian cricketers in the current side also named him as the batter to look out for in the series. Another headline named Jaiswal as Kohli's "heir apparent".
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Kohli's staggering numbers in Australia
Kohli has had success in Australia whether it is a batter or as captain. He is tied with Sachin Tendulkar with most Test centuries by an Asian batter on Australian soil. Overall, England greats Jack Hobbs (9) and Wally Hammond (7) have more Test centuries by a visiting batter in Australia.
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He is likely to move up on the list of visiting batters with most Test runs in Australia. So far, the 36-year-old has scored 1,352 runs from 13 Tests at an average of 54.08. He has four half-centuries in Australia as well. If Kohli has a good series, he is likely to be in top three run-scorers against Australia.
Kohli's current form
Kohli was not in form in the home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand. In the whitewash India suffered at the hands of New Zealand, he scored less than 100 runs in the series despite a 70-run knock in Bengaluru.
Earlier, in the Test series against Bangladesh, he did well in the second Test before low scores in the series opener.
