‘One of those will make lot of runs’: Glenn Maxwell on Kohli-Smith battle in BGT

New Delhi: Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell is excited to watch the much-anticipating contest between batting greats Virat Kohli and Steve Smith in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home later in the year.

India will travel to Australia to play a revamped five-match Test series against rivals Australia from November 22, 2024, to January 7, 2025. The five matches will be hosted in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. India have retained the last four editions of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The biggest player battles during the two-month-long series will be the one between India’s Virat Kohli and Australia’s Steve Smith, who are the two members of the ‘Fab Four’ club. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Star Sports about this humdinger, Maxwell, who has played seven Test matches for Australia, commented:

“I think probably the way that the two superstar batters, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, probably head-to-head, seeing thow their dominance I suppose is asserted on the series and how much of an influence that has on who takes home he Border Gavaskar Trophy.”

“One of those two is going to make a lot of runs, if not both of them, and it’s going to be pretty exciting to watch the two of the finest players of our generation go head-to-head.”

Virat Kohli vs Steve Smith: Who has most runs in Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Virat Kohli and Steve Smith first faced in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the 2013 series in India. Since then the two have faced in five series in India and Australia with the last face-off coming in 2023 in subcontinent. Although Smith (9685) has more Test runs than Kohli (8848), the star Indian batter outnumbers his Aussie counterpart in runs when it comes to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Kohli has scored 1979 runs in 42 innings against Australia at an average of 48.26 with the help of five half-centuries and eight centuries from 2011 to 2023. Meanwhile, Smith has made 1887 runs in 35 innings at 52.79 with five half-centuries and eight hundreds to his name.