'His bat will speak vociferously', Harbhajan Singh backs star Indian batter to be the X-factor in BGT '23

Harbhajan Singh picks his X-factor for BGT (Source: Twitter)

The high-profile Test series involving India and Australia, also known as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), is all set to start on Thursday. Ahead of the first Test to be played in Nagpur, ex-India spinner Harbhajan Singh expects Virat Kohli to make a key difference-maker for the hosts.

After being out of form for a long time, Virat Kohli has delivered a string of impressive performances in the limited-overs game, starting with his century in the Asia Cup. He'll be eyeing a similar return to form in the red-ball game and ending his century drought in Tests. The 34-year-old last got to triple figures in a Test back in 2019.

Harbhajan Singh thinks Kohli will be key for Test Championship Final qualification

Talking about Kohli's form on his YouTube channel, former Indian spin icon Harbhajan Singh said that the run-machine will have to take the onus if the hosts are to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. "I think this is the series where Virat Kohli's bat will speak vociferously. When he starts going, we know he won't stop. If India want to play well in this series, then the run machine will have to take the onus and score big runs. Just forget what happened in the past. Whatever the fault was in the technique has now been left behind. Everything is ok (and) Virat Kohli is back in form," Harbhajan said.

The ex-spinner also backed Virat Kohli to take India to the finals of the Global Test Championships. "However, he couldn't make runs in the Bangladesh series. Doesn't matter. I hope that when a player of Virat Kohli's stature returns to form, they do win their team matches. This is the time to take your team to the Test Championship final. Virat Kohli is the kind of player who deserves more praise than what he gets. He has scored so many runs (over the years), so when he comes out to bat, we expect him to score no less than 100 runs. We consider his form based on this," the 42-year-old added.