Former Australian national cricket team captain Michael Clarke lavished high praise on Indian national cricket team batsman Virat Kohli for his heroics in the Perth Test. He said the hosts must work hard now to stop the batsman as he has regained confidence.

Virat Kohli started the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 on a dominant note in what was the biggest positive for the Indian National Cricket Team, the batsman regained his mojo. The opening batsman made a strong statement and made an astonishing return to form.

Virat Kohli, who struggled to get going in the pre-series Tests, showed why he is considered the best batsman in modern cricket. After posting a 5-run score in the first innings, he ensured that he put up a dominant performance in the second innings and took his team to a comfortable position.

Virat Kohli scored his 30th Test ton in 143 balls in Perth

Virat Kohli, in the second innings, looked extremely solid with the bat right from the start. The first batsman defended the ball quite well and after that played some important and accurate shots once he crossed his half-century, which made the bowlers of the Australian National Cricket Team look clueless.

Virat Kohli scored his 30th Test ton in 143 balls. The great batsman finished with an unbeaten innings of 100 runs off 143 balls. He also hit 8 fours and 2 sixes during his knock and helped the Indian national cricket team win the first game of the series by a huge margin of 295 runs.

Virat is back and there is no doubt about it – Michael Clarke

While praising Virat Kohli, Michael Clarke said that the batsman played as he knows how and looked very smart. He highlighted how the right-hander gained his trust, stating that everyone was rightly saying that the batsman is back. Speaking on ESPN, he said:

“Yeah, you couldn’t ask for a better second innings, really. How he got to the crease, minimal pressure on him, he wasn’t scoring as many runs as he would like, he came out like that, with the team dominating.” However, he played the way we know Virat can play.

“So what he did was he was ready, he was activated because he knew he needed some runs for his own confidence. So he did the hard work from the beginning and then he earned the right to play his natural game. And at the end of his innings , everyone was sitting there saying, Virat is back, and there’s no doubt about it.”

We have work to do now to keep him down because he is full of confidence – Michael Clarke on Virat Kohli

Michael Clarke further mentioned that top players like Virat Kohli need to work hard at the beginning of the series, but since he got a century in the first game, Australia needs to work hard now. While talking about the same, he explained:

“Now, as I mentioned before, a ball was thrown in this series. The best players, you don’t want them at the top at the beginning of the series. You want them to have to work hard to get into the series. And if they score 100 in test three or four, you kind of accept it because they’re so good.

“But to allow him to get to 100 in that first Test, we have some work to do now to keep him down because he’s full of confidence. He’s got that character back. And that’s when he’s at his best. That’s why he’s been the best player in the world for so long.

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