Former Australian wicket-keeper and current commentator Adam Gilchrist is confident that Indian captain Virat Kohli will repeat his heroics from the 2014-15 tour. However, he believes that if India needs to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the other batsmen will also have to chip in and contribute.
"Going ahead into the Test series, I expect Virat Kohli will have another imperious outing like he did in 2014 (694 runs in 4 Tests at average 86.50). I have spoken with him these last few days, seen his confidence, and seeing the way he batted in Sydney, I will be very surprised if he doesn't," Gilchrist was as quoted by PTI.
Gilchrist says that it will be interesting to see if the other Indian batsmen step up and contribute which then allows the Indian bowlers enough time and score to bowl out Australia twice in the match.
Speaking about a specific plan to contain the Indian captain, Gilchrist said that hosts need to be patient and try to attack Kohli with the new ball.
'Best hope for Australia is to make early inroads'
"I don't think I will be able to pinpoint a plan because I don't know. At best, Australia will have to be patient. They will have to play good old-fashioned Test cricket. Their best hope is to make early inroads in the Indian batting and bowl at Kohli with the new ball," the legendary stumper added.
Gilchrist, who has spent a lot of time in India knows this current crop of players and believes that India enters the series as favourites.
"India start as favourites for this Test series mainly because they have a reasonable idea of their team composition. They have a strong understanding what combination they want to play with,' he assessed.
According to Gilchrist, there is nothing to choose between the sides as far as the bowling attack is concerned and that the team which guards against batting collapses will triumph in the series.
"Both teams have top-drawer bowling attacks, so it will come down to which batting line-up can eliminate collapses. Kohli talked about India's tour of England and said that when they were poor, they were really poor, and hence lost. India have only batted reasonably well in patches in both South Africa and England. They are favourites, but they also have to be honest with themselves," he said.
