Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has said that Virat Kohli will have to score runs if India wants to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. The four-Test series will begin with the first match between India and Australia to be played in Nagpur from February 9.
Virat Kohli broke his three-year barren run of not scoring a century in international cricket by hitting a ton against Afghanistan T20Is and then scored three centuries against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively.
However, he is yet to score a century in Tests since November 2019 and had a lukewarm two Tests against Bangladesh in December 2022. And his form will be crucial if India wants to get the better of the no.1 ranked Test team Australia at home.
“All the praise in the world is not enough for a player like Virat Kohli. He’s scored so many runs that it feels like we will only say that he is in form when he scores a century. However, the last three years have not been the most fruitful for Kohli, according to his high standards,” said Harbhajan on his YouTube channel.
He added that Kohli has returned to form and will score many runs against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series.
“But he is still Virat Kohli. He has picked up form in the ODIs and has already hit two centuries. He was scoring runs in the last couple of years as well but he was not getting hundreds. I think this is the series (against Australia) that Virat Kohli’s form will return and he will score many runs. And when he is in form, it’s very hard to stop him,” Harbhajan added.
However, Harbhajan stressed that if India is to win the Test series against Australia, then Kohli will have to score runs and win them matches.
“If India wants to win this series, then Virat Kohli will have to score runs and win matches for India, that we expect out of him. That is because he is past his lean patch and Kohli is back in form. He has been scoring runs recently. However, he could not score many runs during the Test series against Bangladesh but that is alright because we know big players like him win matches for their sides when they’re in form,” said Harbhajan.
(India Today inputs)
