Australia captain Pat Cummins believes that India's Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant will get their mojo back with bat in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. India batter Kohli and Pant's form has become a major cause of concern as India are looking for their third consecutive Test series win in Australia.
Kohli who smashed an unbeaten century in the second inning of the first Test match has failed to perform in the last two Test matches. He managed to score 126 runs in five innings. On the other hand, Rishabh Pant who played a match-winning unbeaten knock during his last Test outing in Australia has just scored 87 runs. He has managed scores of 37, 1, 21, 28, and 9 in his five innings across three Tests so far.
India's flop batting show helped Australia to bounce back in the second Test match in Adelaide after losing the first Test in Perth. As both India and Australia are preparing for the fourth Test match, Australia's skipper predicted that Kohli and Pant to hit back at some point on the tour.
“I really hope not but you know they’re good players so no doubt they’ll throw some challenges at us at some point," Cummins said on Wednesday.
India captain Rohit Sharma who joined the squad for the second Test match is also going through a lean patch in the longest format of the game. Citing Rohit's poor outings, Cummins reminded how in the past stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane scored a century in Melbourne to trigger India’s comeback.
“Look, hard to say. It was a good Test match here (Melbourne) a few years ago. I think Rahane got 100 from memory. So yeah, it always seems like a boxing day every year is a cracking test match. Last year was a great Test match against Pakistan as well," Cummins said.
After the third Test match at Gabba ended in a draw, the five-Test match series currently levelled at 1-1. Both India and Australia will look to win the series considering to confirm their spot for World Test Championship (WTC) Final scheduled to take place in England next year.