Irfan Pathan has fired a ‘Virat Kohli’ warning to Australia ahead of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final. The highly-anticipated contest between India and Australia is scheduled to be played from Wednesday (June 7) at the Oval in London.
After struggling for months in the last couple of years or so, Virat Kohli finally looks in solid form. After having a good outing with the bat in international cricket in the last season, he capped it off with a solid campaign in the recently-concluded season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Kohli ended his three-year century drought in international cricket last year with a fine ton against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. The former India skipper also had a good outing in the T20 World Cup in Australia and was India’s best performer with the bat.
He then scored his first ODI century last after a gap of three years when he scored 113 against Bangladesh before scoring two more against Sri Lanka in January. And in March this year, he scored a Test century after a gap of more than 1000 days when he smashed a sublime 186 against Australia in the Ahmedabad Test.
Irfan Pathan’s Virat Kohli warning:
After roaring back to form in international cricket, Virat Kohli enjoyed a good outing in IPL 2023 where he scored over 600 runs with the help of two centuries. With Kohli looking in solid form, Irfan Pathan believes that if Australia mistake the latest version of the batsman to be the one who was struggling in 2021, they will suffer.
“This is a completely different Virat Kohli who has scored lot of runs. No doubt about it. He scored a 100 in Test match, T20 and ODIs. Hence, the drought of hundreds has gone away as well.
“A guy like Virat Kohli… always known him, he is a confident player. He has scored over 25,000 runs in international cricket. How has he done that? Through the confidence in his abilities. When he comes to bat in England in that WTC final against Australia, No. 4 batter is going to be the most crucial one for India,” Pathan said on Star Sports.
Kohli will be desperate to end India’s long wait for an ICC trophy by performing well in the WTC final. India have not won a global trophy since the triumph in the 2013 Champions Trophy and will be hoping that Kohli delivers in the crucial clash.