Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 61 to help India beat Australia in the 3rd T20I in Sydney
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has been saying this for a while and on Sunday, he again stressed on the fact that he feels Team India captain Virat Kohli will make the difference in the upcoming Test series versus Australia.
The home side will be without two of their key batsmen in Steve Smith and David Warner due to their suspension from cricket for a year and this is being seen as India's best opportunity to rewrite history and become the first subcontinent team to win a Test series Down Under.
And after Kohli's immaculate finish in the third T20I, Vaughan took to Twitter to express his opinion about the upcoming Test series, which starts on December 6 in Adelaide.
"You get the feeling, Virat Kohli is going to be the difference between the two teams over the next few weeks," Vaughan tweeted.
Kohli, who failed to score big in the first T20I in Brisbane, roared back to form and guided his team to victory in the third and final T20I of the series, thus, allowing India to level the series 1-1 after the second game was washed out.
The 30-year-old walked out to bat after Shikhar Dhawan gave India a blazing start in their chase of 165 but things soon got tricky, when the visitors lost Rohit Sharma as well. He steadied the ship with KL Rahul but before they could take the attack to the opposition, Rahul fell and Rishabh Pant followed the very next ball. The wickets added pressure on Kohli, who was just beginning to open up.
But, the calm head of Dinesh Karthik aided the Indian captain and the wicket-keeper batsman provided Kohli fantastic support by holding up one end, which allowed Kohli to cut-loose.
Kohli then took the attack to the opposition and soon completed his 19th fifty in T20Is as India edged closer to the target. Karthik then hit a few lusty blows to make the target look easy before Kohli finished it off with back to back boundaries off Andrew Tye and remained not out on 61 as India won by eight wickets.
With the knock, Kohli now has 476 runs in 14 matches against Australia -- which is the most runs scored by a player against a single opposition in the shortest format of the game.
He is also tied with Rohit with 19 fifties in T20s -- most by Indians in T20 cricket and it was also his 13th fifty while chasing -- which is the most by any batsman in T20I cricket.
Kohli's record in Australia in whites is equally impressive and he is the only Indian batsman to score five centuries Down Under in red-ball cricket.
Kohli scored 692 runs from 8 innings including four hundreds during the 2014-15 tour at an average of 86.50 with his highest score being 169 off 272 balls at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The Indian captain has improved leaps and bounds since then and is again touted to take over proceedings when the Test series kicks off early next month.
And with Kohli smashing an unbeaten 61, the Australian bowlers will have their work cut out contain the 'King'.
