'A guy like him...': Irfan Pathan drops Virat Kohli bomb at Australia ahead of WTC final

Virat Kohli has regained his form and is back to his best ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which begins on Wednesday, June 7. Irfan Pathan, the former India all-rounder, has warned Australia not to mistake this version of Kohli for the one they faced two years ago during India's tour of down under. In the inaugural WTC final against New Zealand, Kohli struggled to convert his starts into big scores, which ultimately led to India's defeat in the final of the competition.

However, Kohli has since overcome his rough patch, scoring centuries in all three formats and delivering outstanding performances in the T20 World Cup against Pakistan. In the recently concluded IPL 2023, he was the fourth-highest run-scorer with 639 runs and the second-highest for his franchise. Pathan believes that if Australia are expecting the same Kohli as in 2021, they will be in for a tough time.

"This is a completely different Virat Kohli who has scored a lot of runs. No doubt about it. He has scored 100 in Test matches, T20, and ODIs. Hence, the drought of hundreds has gone away as well. A guy like Virat Kohli... always known him, he is a confident player. He has scored over 25,000 runs in international cricket. How has he done that? Through confidence in his abilities. When he comes to bat in England in that WTC final against Australia, the No. 4 batter is going to be the most crucial one for India," Pathan said on Star Sports.

Virat Kohli is known to thrive on challenging opponents and important occasions, and the WTC final presents the perfect combination of both. He has an impressive record against Australia in Test matches, scoring 1979 runs in 24 matches at an average of 48.27, including eight centuries. The Australian team has been one of his favorite opponents in red-ball cricket. However, Australians are aware of what Kohli can do and they are likely to be mindful of him in the one-off match. 

WTC Final squads

India’s squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk).

Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia's squad: Pat Cummins (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steven Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, David Warner.

Image: PTI/AP