It’s often the mini battles within the big battle that could decide a Test series of the magnitude of the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Virat Kohli vs Steve Smith is going to be a huge battle in the forthcoming series. Both the talismanic batters will hold the key for their respective teams and the one who will have a better Test series will definitely boost his team’s chances of winning.
Smith has a fantastic record against India and he has always been a thorn in India’s flesh in all conditions. The right-hander has scored 2042 runs in 19 Test matches against India at an impressive average of 65.87, including nine centuries.
It will be interesting to note Smith’s batting position as he has opened the innings for Australia in the last four Test matches but has managed only 171 runs at an average of 28.50.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli has scored 2042 runs in 25 Test matches against Australia at an average of 47.48, including eight centuries. Kohli has even better numbers while playing in Australia as he has scored 1352 runs in 13 Test matches at an impressive average of 54.08, including six centuries.
“I think probably the way that the two superstar batters, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, probably head-to-head, seeing how their dominance I suppose is asserted on the series and how much of an influence that has on who takes home the Border Gavaskar Trophy. One of those two is going to make a lot of runs, if not both of them, and it’s going to be pretty exciting to watch the two of the finest players of our generation go head-to-head,” Glenn Maxwell told Star Sports.
The opening Test match between India and Australia will be played at Perth from November 22 onwards.
