Former Australia cricketer Shane Lee warned Ricky Ponting on his remark about Virat Kohli's Test performance ahead of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 which is scheduled to start from November 22. Ponting who is currently associated with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings (PBKS) said that the India batting stalwart is not in his prime form. Kohli has an average of 54.08 and has scored 1352 runs in 13 matches in Australia.
Ricky Ponting on Virat Kohli
Ponting noted that Kohli, who celebrated his 36th birthday on November 5, hasn’t quite hit his peak in his 30s. In 2024, Kohli has played six Test matches, scoring only 250 runs across 12 innings with an average of 22.72, managing just one half-century along the way.
"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," Ponting had said. "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."
Shane Lee's response to Ponting over Kohli's remark
While talking on Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On Shane Lee said that it was a bad move by Ponting because that might fire up Kohli against Australia.
“That is a bad move, Ricky. What are you doing? You are going to fire that guy up. He is a world class player and he will fire up out here,” said Lee.
Lee anticipates this year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy to be intense, with extra heat added by the ball-tampering allegations involving India A and the remarks made by Ponting about Kohli.
“I think it is going to be a fantastic series. I think there is going to be a bit of spice in this series, definitely with the ball tampering issues in and around the India A team, and particularly now that Ricky Ponting has now come out and given it to Kohli," said Lee.
While Lee admitted that Australia have a great bowling unit, the batting was a concern for him and went on to predict India could retain the BGT title with a 2-2 series draw.
“We have a world class attack with (Mitchell) Starc, (Pat) Cummins, (Josh) Hazlewood and (Nathan) Lyon. I mean, ‘c’mon’. It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Lee.
“(But) our batting is fragile. It is probably one of the weaker batting line-ups I have seen for an Australian Test side in a long while. (Nathan) McSweeney is going to come in and he is under pressure, because he has never batted as an opener, and I think that is a specialist position."
“(Usman) Khawaja is the stand out for me (for Australia) at the moment. He is going to play really well. (Marnus) Labuschagne, for me, has been out of form for a while, as has Steve Smith."
“It is going to come down to our batting and how well we can handle pressure, particularly with (Jasprit) Bumrah and their pace attack steaming in when the wicket is doing a bit.”
Rohit Sharma-led side will look to win this series 4-0 to confirm their spot in the upcoming World Test Championship final which will take place next year in June.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 schedule
The opening Test match of the series between Australia and India will kick off in Perth, running from November 22 to 26. The teams will then move to Adelaide Oval for the second Test, a Day/Night game scheduled for December 6 to 10. Following that, the third Test is set for The Gabba in Brisbane, from December 14 to 18. The fourth match will be hosted at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26 to 30, and the series will conclude with the fifth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, held from January 3 to 7.
India squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Travelling reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.
