Sydney, Sept 11: Veteran batter Steve Smith described Virat Kohli’s approach on the field in a unique way, saying the Indian batting stalwart is Australian in his thoughts and action.India and Australia will renew their intense rivalry at the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will see the two nations squaring off in the all-important five-match series at Perth, Adelaide (pink-ball game), Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, respectively.
India have won the last two editions of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy held in Australia in 2018/19 and 2020/21 respectively.
“I believe Virat Kohli is Australian in thoughts and action. The way he gets into a battle, the way he gets into the challenge and tries to get on top of the opposition. He’s probably the most Australian of the Indian players, I’d say,” Smith said in a video posted by Star Sports on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.
Kohli, who has 80 international centuries, including 29 Test tons, has scored 8,846 runs across 113 Tests with a 49.16 average while Smith has 9,685 runs in 109 Tests at an average of 56.97 with 32 centuries.
“There’s no real, you know, I need to beat him or anything like that. It’s just about going out and playing and trying to score as many runs as I can and helping Australia have success and that’s what it’s all about,” he added.
Smith further revealed that the two players share messages often and expressed excitement to face Kohli in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting from November 22.
“We get on quite well, share messages every now and then and look, he’s a great guy and obviously a wonderful player. It’s going to be nice to come up against him again this summer,” said Smith.