Indian batting stalwart Virat Kohli has come under scrutiny for his subpar performance in the recently held Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under.

Kohli began the marquee series with a second innings hundred (100*) at Perth, but he managed to amass only 90 runs in his other eight innings combined.

The age-old problem of fishing outside the off stump led to Kohli’s downfall throughout the tour, with Australian quicks Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc exploiting his weakness.

While Kohli finished the tour of Australia with an average of 23.75, he scored only 440 runs in 21 Test innings at an average of 23.15 last year. As a result, his career average has dropped to 46.85 after 123 Tests.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, former Australian speedster Brett Lee called Virat Kohli's performance in Australia very un-Kohli-like.

Lee said that Australia's brilliant bowling plan put Kohli in trouble, resulting in a terrible Test series for him.

“For me, it was very Un-Kohli-like, you obviously get batsmen nick off occasionally or they’ll do something and they’ll make those differences in their actions and techniques but the thing with Virat Kohli. Unfortunately for him, he kept getting out the same way through the whole Test series,” Lee said.

Brett Lee was optimistic about Kohli's return to form after his second innings ton at Perth but it was slim pickings for the star batter thereafter.

“I think back to Perth, the second innings where he made a magnificent 100 and I thought okay, he’s in going himself in the first innings nicked off but now he’s back to his best, 100," Lee stated.

“But after that, he was very slim pickings for Virat Kohli. I also think Australia had a very valid bowling plan to him, they researched him very very well. I think their preparation was very outstanding but unfortunately for Virat Kohli, he missed out other than one innings in Perth,” he added.

However, Brett Lee refused to write off Virat Kohli entirely, arguing that the latter looked engaged throughout the series and it was just that he was not able to contribute a lot of runs with the bat.

“I don’t think so that they were mentally not well prepared. I think Rohit Sharma more than Kohli but I was watching Kohli very very closely throughout the whole series and to me, he [Kohli] looked very engaged, he looked like he was certainly applying all those skills that have made him such a great batsman. And, he’s still such a great batsman. But unfortunately for Kohli, he couldn’t get those runs,” he concluded.