India’s tour to Australia is just a couple of weeks away and viewers can’t wait to watch this epic battle between two of the top cricketing nations. The games will be intense and so will be the rivalries. Talking about the rivalries, the Australians are known to sledge a lot during the game, taking advantage of the Indians who barely indulge in it.
However, since the Kohli era has begun, Indians too, do not shy away from giving the Aussies back, and things have gone from bad to worse almost every time the sides have faced each other. When asked about it to the Australian Test skipper Tim Paine, he had several ’polarizing’ thoughts about his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli.
On a lot of occasions in the past, Paine has mentioned that Kohli is just like another player to him but this time, he had another plan. He said, “With Virat, it is a funny one. We love to hate him, but we also love to watch him bat as cricket fans. He certainly is polarizing in that type of scenario. We love watching him bat, but we don’t like seeing him score too many runs,” Paine added while talking to ABC Sport.
There have always been some exchange of words from both the ends and the most recent one was during India’s tour to Australia in 2018-19 series when both skippers were involved in a war of words. The umpires had to intervene during the second innings of the test match at Perth when Paine was batting and was verbally involved with Kohli.
India emerged as the series winners eventually becoming the first Asian side to win a Test series in Australia. Paine still cleared the air by mentioning the fact that it could’ve been anyone who would have been involved in a verbal battle and not just Virat because he was the skipper. The game is intense in most cases and that’s what makes winning more important for the sides.
This time though, Kohli will be missing three of the four tests as he will return home for the birth of his first child. Paine also spoke about David Warner and Steve Smith, who will be available this season as opposed to the earlier series as both were banned in the aftermath of ball-tampering.
Paine also said that having lost the last series at home, Australia will be up for everything and will try their best to lay their hands on the series again.
Cover Credits: CircleofCricket
