Ace India batter Virat Kohli is just 33 runs away from surpassing Cheteshwar Pujara in an elite Border-Gavaskar Trophy list. He will have the chance to go past another milestone when he takes to the Optus Stadium in Perth for the first Test of the upcoming five-match series, beginning November 22. Not in the best of touches, a lot of eyes will be on Kohli's performance. Kohli has scored 2042 runs against Australia and needs just 33 more runs to go past Pujara, who has scored 2074 runs in 24 Tests against the Australians. Fifth among Indian batters with most Test runs against Australia, Kohli has played 25 Tests against the Aussies, scoring at an average of 47.48. Kohli has had an exceptional record against Australia, in 12 years of playing against the opposition, scoring eight hundreds and five fifties. Pujara, who played his last Test in the World Test Championship final at the Oval last year, has scored runs against Australia at an average of 49.38. The top three in the list are filled by batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and former India head coach Rahul Dravid. Tendulkar scored 3630 runs in 29 matches at a stunning average of 55. Laxman finished with 2434 runs in 29 matches at an average of 49.67. Dravid scored 2143 runs in 32 Tests with two hundreds to his name. Notably, Kohli can also go past Dravid if he scored 102 runs in the series.

Ravi Shastri Backs Kohli To Prosper In AustraliaFormer India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that Kohli has the potential to turn around his poor form and prosper during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Kohli has been going through a rough run across all formats over the last few months. He has scored only one fifty and averaged just 21.33 across five Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand since the start of the year.