The former Australian all-rounder, Shane Lee, was stunned by the recent comments of their former captain, Ricky Ponting, on the recent struggles of Virat Kohli ahead of the upcoming five-match red-ball series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25, which is scheduled to begin on November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Ponting has already been questioned about his expertise on Indian cricket by the current head coach of the Blue Brigade, Gautam Gambhir, who felt that both Virat Kohli and their captain Rohit Sharma are bold and strong enough to make a return in the longest format of the game.
Kohli is coming into the series with 93 Test runs in six innings at an average of 15.50 with one solitary half-century against New Zealand, but his record of 1352 runs at an average of over 54 down under in the longest format of the game will keep him ahead for the BGT.
Shane Lee namedrops Virat Kohli to predict the series score line of BGT 2024-25
Lee, who featured in two of World Cup squads for Australia, was taken aback by such words of his former captain as Australia aims to win their first BGT over a decade, having lost the last two successive Test series against this opponent at home during the 2018/19 season, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli and later in the 2020/21 edition of the event.
“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.” The New South Wales-born expressed in the recent podcast on Fox Cricket.
Ponting felt that Virat Kohli, who has smashed three centuries in the last five years in the longest format, will be under a little bit of pressure coming to Australia for the series. In the ongoing year, the right-handed batter has smashed 250 Test runs in 12 innings at an average of 22.73 and a strike rate of 70 with just one half-century.
The Delhi-born could collect only 671 runs in 12 innings last year at an average of 55.92, shouldering on two centuries and as many half-centuries, while the year before that saw him getting 265 Test runs in 11 innings at an average of 26.50 with the help of one solitary half-century besides his name.
“I saw a stat the other day about Virat Kohli, and 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, I mean, that’s a concern. 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.” The former Australian captain addressed this during the recent ICC review.
Lee admitted that amid a recent comment of Ricky and the ball-tempering saga of the India A and Australia A series, he expects some spice between the two heavyweights.
“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 Virat Kohli.” The 51-year-old elaborated.
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Because of their struggle in the batting order, Lee anticipated a 2-2 series result in the Border Gavaskar Trophy because of their classical bowling department.
“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.” Lee concluded.