• Source:JND
Add as a preferred

IND vs AUS: As the Men in Blue gear up to take a lead in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia and since the fourth Test match will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, all the focus will then shift on India's star batter Virat Kohli, who has been going through a lean patch and is unable to leave the outside off-stump balls and that has become one of the biggest reasons of his dismissals. The fourth Test match would be held in Melbourne and would be called as Boxing Day Test since it would start from December 26.

Although he did score a match-winning unbeaten century during the series opener, the Australian bowlers have given Virat a hard time as he had scored just 26 runs during his last four innings including three single-digit scores.

But, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the longest format, Kohli does boast of a brilliant record as he had scored 316 runs after playing in three Test matches at an average of 52.66 and that includes a hundred and two half-centuries after playing in six innings. His highest individual score is 169, which he scored in 2014.

Also Read: Indian bowlers sweat it out in intense training session ahead of Boxing Day Test against Australia

If his overall Boxing Day Test record is concerned, which also includes playing against South Africa, then it's brilliant. During the last six Test matches and 12 innings, he has scored 540 runs, at a staggering average of 45.00 and that includes a hundred and three half-centuries under his kitty. His best individual score was 169 runs.

If he does score big, then he can go past Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 449 runs after playing in five matches, which includes a hundred and three half-centuries, and became the country's highest run-scorer at this venue in the longest format. He is the third-highest run-scorer, since Ajinkya Rahane, who had scored 369 runs after playing in three matches and also included two hundred, is lying at the second position in this list. Virat Kohli has to score 134 runs to go to the top.

Talking about playing in all the formats at MCG, Virat has scored 766 runs after playing in 14 matches at a brilliant average of 54.71 and that also includes two hundreds and four half-centuries in 16 innings. His highest individual score is 169 runs and that also includes a brilliant match-winning unbeaten knock of 82 runs against arch-rival Pakistan this helped the team chase down the target of 160 runs during the 2022 T20 World Cup and that is considered one of his best T20I innings.

His fans are eagerly waiting for him to score a big knock as this year he has scored just 614 runs, at a staggering average of 21.92 and that includes just one hundred and two half-centuries under his kitty, and his highest individual score this year was 100*.

He has played in nine Test matches this year and has scored 376 runs at a poor average of 25.06 and that includes a century and half-century under his kitty in 17 innings. His highest individual score in this format is 100*.

Virat has been going through a lean patch in the longest format since 2020. He has played 37 Test matches and 64 innings in this time frame and has scored just 1964 runs at an average of 31.67 including three hundred and nine half-centuries and his highest individual score was 186 runs.

During the 2023-25 WTC cycle, the star India batter has scored 687 runs at an average of 36.15 after playing in 12 matches and 21 innings and that includes two hundreds and three half-centuries, and his highest individual score was 121 runs.

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal.