“Yugon ki ladai (Fight for the ages)”, “Ek Nava Raja (The new king)” – these might sound like eye-ball grabbing headlines in a local Hindi newspaper in India. But, wash your eyes once and check notes, these are headlines of the Australian papers – The Daily Telegraph and the Advertiser on Tuesday (November 12) morning. The papers were filled with the preview of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy set to kick off in 10 days with one face taking the majority of the space, Virat Kohli.
It’s not often that the newspapers or the media in general highlights the rival team’s language and culture but such is the magnitude of the upcoming five-match Test series and the popularity of Kohli, whom the Australian media admire greatly, that columns and headlines were in Hindi and Punjabi. Not just Indian cricket, Kohli has become the face of the sport worldwide and the former India captain has certainly dominated Australian media ever since his first tour to the country in 2011-12 and to now what will be his fifth apart from the two World Cups in 2015 and 2022.
Apart from Kohli, one of the pages was dedicated to the new king, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has been in the top half of the run-scoring charts in Test cricket in 2024. Jaiswal, will be keen to continue his spectacular form in Australia after an outstanding show at home and in the West Indies last year.
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Kohli, on the other hand, hasn’t been in great form coming into the Aussie assignment. The spin and turn at home led to Kohli’s undoing in the New Zealand series but as everyone is hoping, Australia might just unlock the beast in him.
Kohli has had a great run with the bat in Australia in the past and with a World Test Championship (WTC) final spot on the line, the veteran with the backing from the head coach Gautam Gambhir will be keen to make amends in what is a crucial series for the side having suffered a brutal whitewash at home at the start of the month.
