New Delhi: The first match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is to start from November 22. But 10 days before this first Test, Virat Kohli is the talk of the town. After King Kohli reached Perth, Kohli fever has spread in the Australian media. When Virat Kohli reached Perth, his picture was published on the front page of many newspapers of the Australian media. The special thing was that to please the fans, the local media showed his picture in headlines printed in Hindi and Punjabi, which clearly shows Kohli’s immense popularity and his importance in the upcoming series. The newspapers had Virat Kohli’s poster and there was a column on why the Border Gavaskar Trophy is the new Ashes and which matches should be awaited in the five-Test series.
These articles mentioned Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant. There was a bold headline in Hindi on the front page, “The Battle of the Ages”. While a separate article featured young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal with the Punjabi headline ‘Navam Raja’ or ‘New King’. This kind of reporting about Kohli in the Australian media has surprised Australian sports journalists as well. Kohli arrived in Perth on Sunday evening. He joined his Test team players two weeks before India’s first match of the series at Optus Stadium from 22 to 26 November.
At the age of 36, Kohli’s biggest challenge is to prove himself on Australian soil. India’s home series against New Zealand ended with a 0-3 whitewash. At the same time, Virat Kohli was heavily criticized during this time, who scored only 93 runs at an average of 15.50. Due to which the pressure on him increased before the Border-Gavaskar series.
Indian team for Australia tour: Rohit Sharma (captain), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Australian team for the first Test: Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.
Indian team tour of Australia (November 2024 – January 2025)
22-26 November: First Test, Perth
6-10 December: Second Test, Adelaide
14-18 December: Third Test, Brisbane
26-30 December: Fourth Test, Melbourne
03-07 January: Fifth Test, Sydney
