We love to hate Virat Kohli but we also love to watch him bat: Tim Paine

Back in 2018-19, Virat Kohli became the first Indian captain to win a Test series against Australia on the latter’s backyard. Though his own form with the bat wasn’t overly great, he managed to scrip victory for the visitors. The 32-year-old will be up for the challenge yet again when India start their four-match Test series on December 17 with the opening Test at the Adelaide Oval.

Going into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australian captain Tim Paine is pretty aware of what Kohli has to offer. In the previous tour, the duo had some altercations that ended up grabbing the limelight. However, the Tasmania-born Paine doesn’t wish to get bogged down by Kohli’s stature and said that the Delhi-born is “just another player”.

We don’t like seeing Virat Kohli score too many runs, says Paine

“I get asked a log of questions about Virat Kohli, he’s just another player to me it doesn’t really bother me. There’s not really a relationship there with him to be fair, I see him at the toss and play against him and that’s about it,” Paine was quoted as saying in ABC Sport.

In the 2018-19 tour, Virat scored at an average around 40 with a century and half-century under his belt. But that he has an overall average of 53.62 shows that he hasn’t dropped his guard in the longer format. Paine lauded Virat for his run-making prowess but also admitted that the Indian captain can make the opposition sweat to get his wicket.

“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 polarising in that type of scenario. We love watching him bat, but we don’t like seeing him score too many runs,” he stated.

“Australia and India, it’s a heated competition and he’s obviously a competitive person and so am I, so year there were a few occasions when we had words but that wasn’t because he was the captain and I was the captain, it could have been anyone,” Paine added.

Kohli won’t be a part of the Test series after the game in Adelaide. The veteran will be missing the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Test as he has taken paternity leave to be with his pregnant wife Anushka Sharma.