Tim Paine, Australian Test captain, didn’t wish to be held back by Virat Kohli’s stature and said that the Delhi-born Indian skipper is “just another player”.
Back in 2018-19, the last time India toured Australia, Virat Kohli became the first Indian captain to win a Test series on Australia soil. Though his own form with the bat wasn’t that great in that tour matching his standards, he managed to script victory for the visitors.
Tim Paine: Virat Kohli Is Just Another Player Who Doesn’t Bother Me Much
The 32-year-old skipper will be up for the challenge yet again when India start their four-match Test series on December 17 with the opening Test at the Adelaide Oval under lights with the pink ball. Australian captain Tim Paine is aware of what Virat Kohli has to offer in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. In the previous tour in 2018-19, the duo had some altercations that ended up grabbing the headlines.
“I get asked a log of questions about Virat Kohli, he’s just another player to me it doesn’t really bother me. There’s not really a relationship there with him to be fair, I see him at the toss and play against him and that’s about it,” Tim Paine was quoted as saying in ABC Sport.
In the 2018-19 tour, Virat Kohli scored at an average around 40 with a century and half-century under his belt. But that he has an overall average of 53.62 in tests shows that he can score even bigger runs in the longer format.
Cheteshwar Pujara was India’s leading run-scorer with 521 runs averaging 74.43 with three hundreds while Virat Kohli was 3rd in leading run scorers of both sides scoring 282 runs. Australia will be back to full strength after addition of the duo of David Warner and Steven Smith, both of whom missed the 2018-19 series due to one year ban.
Tim Paine: Love To Hate Virat Kohli But Also Love To Watch Him Bat
Tim Paine praised the Indian skipper for his run-making prowess with bat besides admitting that the Indian captain can make the opposition sweat to get his wicket. India will play 3 ODIs and as many T20Is before 4 Test match series against Australia in their own backyard.
“With Virat, it is a funny one, we love to hate him but we also love to watch him bat as cricket fans. He certainly is polarizing in that type of scenario. We love watching him bat, but we don’t like seeing him score too many runs,” he stated.
“Australia and India, it’s a heated competition and he’s obviously a competitive person and so am I, so year there were a few occasions when we had words but that wasn’t because he was the captain and I was the captain, it could have been anyone,” Tim Paine added.
Virat Kohli, though won’t be a part of the Test series after the first game in Adelaide. The veteran will be missing the last 3 tests at Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Test as he has taken paternity leave to be with his pregnant wife Anushka Sharma as the couple’s first child is expected in January.