London [UK], June 6 : India is all set to take on Australia in the World Test Championship 2023 from June 7 onwards at The Oval. Let us look at two mavericks from both the teams as star batters Virat Kohli and Steve Smith prepare for their clash at the WTC Final.
Virat Kohli, who roared back to form across all formats from late 2022 onwards has a total of 1979 runs in tests with an average of 48.26 and a strike rate of 52.25 against Australia. While Australia's star batter Steve Smith has scored a total of 1887 test runs with an average of 65.06 and a strike rate of 52.79 against India.
Kohli has a total of eight test hundreds and five fifties against Australia and his Australian counterpart is on par with the Indian star as Smith too has scored eight test hundreds as well as five fifties against India.
Smith's highest test score against India is 192 at Australia's largest cricket stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, while Kohli's highest test score against Australia is 186 in India's largest cricket stadium, The Narendra Modi Stadium.
Virat has hit a total of six test centuries and five half-centuries in Australia at the same time Smith has a total of three test centuries and a single half-century in India.
Kohli has scored a total of 1033 test runs with a 33.32 average and a strike rate of 51.59 with a total of two centuries and five half-centuries in England with 149 being his highest score.
In comparison, Smith scored a total of 1727 test runs with an average of 59.55 and a strike rate of 61.41 and has six centuries and seven half-centuries with 215 being his highest score in England.
The total runs scored by Kohli in ICC knockouts stands at 620 at an average of 16 innings in 15 such matches. He has six fifties. On the other hand, Smith has scored a total of 322 runs in seven knockout innings at an average of 80.5, with a century and three fifties.
Australia ended at the top of the WTC table with 11 wins, three losses, and five draws in 19 matches whereas India ended in second position with 10 wins, five losses and three draws.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
Suryakumar Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been named as stand-by players for the high-stakes match.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
Standby players for Australia are Mitch Marsh, and Matthew Renshaw.
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