Australia's pace great Brett Lee talked about knowing Virat Kohli would be a special talent even before he became the biggest name in international cricket in the modern era. The young batter's skill or technique wasn't the only thing that impressed the former Australia fast bowler back then. It was his eyes.

Recalling the clear message he felt every time the two faced off, Lee feels that Kohli had a competitive intensity that set him apart from others even at the start of his international career.

“You can see it in his eyes. There are sportspeople that have got it and might not have had it at the start, but they’ve got that mental attitude, and they can just focus more than other people. And you’ve seen his eyes. He looks straight at you and just—not looks through you—but like, ‘It’s game on, and you aren’t going to get me out.’ I saw that when I played against him. You see it now. He’s had an incredible career,” Lee said on The Ranveer Show.  

According to Lee, Kohli is part of a lineage that started with Sunil Gavaskar and continued through Sachin Tendulkar. Each generation is supposed to produce a player who would meet the demands of Indian cricket.

“The other thing too, like the other reason why you can’t compare eras, is because think of what Sunny Bhai did. You know, Sunny Gavaskar, he was massive, right? And then Sachin Tendulkar became the guy that would try to take that mantelpiece off—well, that trophy away from him. Then Sachin got the glory of the 1.5 billion people back then that were all supporting him, and he had to carry the weight of them on his shoulders. Then you throw in Kohli, who came to take over from Sachin,” Lee added.

However, Lee feels that social media presented Kohli with an additional obstacle that his predecessors did not face on anything like the same magnitude.

“Kohli’s had to deal with all the social media too. So, they had the press back in our day, but there was no social media, thank God.

And as I said, everyone’s got a camera. Everyone’s a journalist. People can think what they want. If he hasn’t scored one run in a game and he’s past his best, it’s all rubbish. Like, how about his record? His record is impeccable. It’s incredible,” Lee said.

Virat Kohli has retired from Tests and T20Is and only plays ODIs for India now. He is expected to be seen in action when India hosts the West Indies next at home for a white-ball series including three ODIs.