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Smith and Kohli were the original members of that particular boy band and while the latter’s career has nosedived of late, their meeting Down Under for the Border-Gavaskar series is simply nirvana for cricket fanatics.

But who comes out on top when you put the pair up against one another?

There is no doubt the numbers in the Kohli column have been negatively impacted by a lean trot since the turn of the decade.

Since the start of 2019 the Indian maestro averages just 36.95 in Test cricket with four centuries – including a 254 not out which inflates the overall numbers.

In the same period Smith has averaged 50.52 and scored nine centuries – figures the average cricketer would kill for.

As a career overall Smith certainly has the better numbers, too.

His 109 Tests to date have reaped 9685 runs at 56.97 – and taking into account a 12-month recess from the game following his 2018 ball-tampering ban, he could have cracked 10,000 runs by now.

Kohli has plundered 9040 runs at 47.83 but that average has been on a steady decline in the last five years.

At the peak of their powers they were equally hard to dismiss.

Kohli averaged above 75.00 in Test cricket over 2016 and 2017, and averaged 68.00 in 2019.

Smith’s best years were 2014 (81.85 average) through to 2019, when he averaged above 70 aside from when he was sidelined in 2018.

“They’re very much their own styles, but both players at their peak, they just didn’t look like getting out. You couldn’t see how they were going to get out,” former Australian captain Mark Taylor told Wide Word of Sports of the two superstar batters.

“Along with probably Williamson and Joe Root, the last 10 to 15 years they’ve been the big four batters of world cricket, particularly Test match cricket.

“With Smith v Kohli you’ve got two of the best going to head to head – and interestingly, looking at both, they are in the twilight of their careers and looking to finish off well.

“I think going back to 2014-15-16 Virat was at the height of his powers. Aggressive, really helped change Indian cricket by his aggressive approach.

“Stand up to the opposition, not just win at home on slow, flat tracks but compete away from home – I think that was really led by Virat Kohli.

“But in his last four years of Test cricket he’s averaged 32… he really has, since probably 2020, has really come back to the pack.”

If Kohli is no longer the batter he once was, try telling that to rabid Indian cricket fans.

The grandstands around Australia will be packed with supporters jostling to get a final glimpse of the rockstar and his MRF bat.

And Kohli has historically relished the challenge Down Under, averaging 54.08 from his 13 matches on Australian soil.

It is unlikely he will be back – at least for a Test match – as he ponders the inevitable question that hits most great sportspeople – when to walk away.

“As he steps into this series, Kohli faces the daunting twin tasks of recapturing the edge that once defined him and maintaining the staggering run-scoring spree of his halcyon days,” Aussie great Greg Chappell wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Smith’s journey, meanwhile, has been one of reinvention. Initially squeezed into the team as a leg-spinning all-rounder, he transformed into Australia’s leading Test batsman with a unique technique and incredible concentration.

“His golden run from 2014 to 2019 established him as one of the best batsmen of his generation. Yet, as he navigates the challenges of his mid-30s, Smith finds himself at a point where physical resilience and mental sharpness don’t come as effortlessly as they once did.

“The transition into one’s 30s brings a set of challenges that every cricketer confronts. Test cricket, in particular, is an unforgiving format, requiring intense focus, acute mental clarity and robust physical endurance over extended periods.”

Kohli can go out in a blaze of glory if he recaptures his best form and somehow guides India – still licking their wounds after a shock home Test series loss to New Zealand – to another win in Australia.

Smith – while considered a while away from retirement still – can reaffirm his status as the best batter of his generation, and one of the greatest ever to don a baggy green.