Both India and Australia skipper Virat Kohli and Tim Paine were involved in a hotly contested series for Border-Gavaskar Trophy between the two countries which India won.
Last time when the two teams met for the Test series down under, it was hotly contested one with no dearth of words from both the sides. This series for Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting December 17 is also supposed to be keenly contested even though the India skipper Virat Kohli will not be available after the first Test match (More Cricket News)
Australia skipper Tim Paine said told ABC Sport that although there is a love-hate relationship with Kohli but he admires him as a batsman.
“He’s (Virat Kohli) is 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 said. (India Vs Australia 2020-2021 Full Schedule)
Paine added that he loves watching Kohli bat as a fan. Kohli, who scored his maiden Test century in Adelaide way back in 2012 was India’s top scorer in the 2014 tour. He made 692 runs in 4 matches which included four scores of hundred.
“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.
Paine went on to add, “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."