Former opener David Warner feels ‘worried’ for Australian cricket’ ahead of the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) as he feels underfire Virat Kohli will come good in the marquee series Down Under. Kohli has been in torrid form in Tests for long. Since 2020, the right-hander has only two hundreds in the format. In India’s recent home season, where they played two Tests versus Bangladesh and hosted New Zealand in a three-match series, Kohli amassed 192 runs at an average of 21.33, including a solitary half-century. Despite all the criticism surrounding Kohli, Warner feels the superstar cricketer knows how to bring his best in big series and, hence, is worried for Pat Cummins & Co. ahead of BGT, which starts on Nov 22 in Perth.

In a column for the Herald Sun, Warner wrote, “This is the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and we know Virat always steps up in Australia. He embraces the challenge like almost no one else who has ever visited our shores. There’s no better way for him to silence the critics than by scoring big runs here. I’m genuinely worried for the Australian cricket team that he’s going to come out and pile on some runs.”

He added, “Virat knows how to channel the energy of Australian crowds and turn it into motivation. He thrives on these big occasions, and this series is exactly that.”

As per reports, there are high chances of India to miss regular captain Rohit Sharma for the first Test, which gets underway this week on Nov 22 (Thursday) in Perth. In his absence, Kohli would be knowing that he will have to mentor the batters single-handedly in tough Australian conditions. With no Rohit, Jasprit Bumrah will lead the national side.

Rohit welcomed the birth of his second child recently, hence, he is expected to join the Indian squad later this month.

India squad for 2024/25 BGT:

Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

Travelling reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed