Former Australia leg-spinner Kerry O’Keeffe feels the hosts will go really hard on India’s star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series. This comes after both the batters failed to cross even the 100-run mark in the recently-concluded 3-match T20I series.
Rohit is likely to miss the first Test in Perth, with reports claiming that his wife is expected to give birth to their second child. O’Keeffe feels the Australian team will throw everything at Rohit whenever he joins the visitors in Australia.
“Rohit Sharma may miss one or two Tests, but he is the captain, and Australia always tries to torpedo the visiting captain. It’s been a tactic they’ve used forever, and I think they’ll go very hard at Rohit Sharma,” O’Keeffe told Fox Sports.
O’Keeffe also suggested that Kohli is “slightly weaker” in comparison to Rohit due to his recent slump in form.
“Kohli, who has worried them (Australia) over the years, what a stunning player he’s been; but in sport, if you sense that the king of the jungle is slightly weaker, you poke a bit of cheek at him,” O’Keeffe added.
However, O’Keeffe also feels that Kohli’s form could be a deciding factor in the outcome of the upcoming series.
“I’m fascinated to see what Virat Kohli ends up with at the end of the summer. It could be the decisive point in the whole summer. If he has an absolutely blazing series, India could win,” O’Keeffe said.
