Australia limited-overs captain Aaron Finch wants the home team to strike a “fine balance” when attempting to unsettle India skipper Virat Kohli in the opening Test.
The last time the two teams faced off in 2018-19, the Test series saw some heated exchanges between the two captains -- Kohli and Tim Paine.
“I think there will be times when things boil over, and when you have got strong characters on either team, that’s going to come to a head at some point,” Finch was quoted as saying by ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
“(But) there is a fine balance there, isn’t there? You don’t want him (Kohli) to get up and about in the contest. When he does, he can be ruthless on an opposition.”
The first Test of the four-match Border Gavaskar series, a day-night contest, begins on Thursday in Adelaide and it gains prominence since Kohli will be returning home after the match for the birth of his first child. Finch, who was part of the last home Test series between the two teams, said the Kohli looks much calmer the way he goes about his job now.
“I think the change is in the way he goes about it now. I think, as a person, he is probably a bit more relaxed out on the field and understands the tempo of the game.”
Finch, who played in the recent Indian Premier League season under the captaincy of Kohli with Royal Challengers Bangalore, noted how he instilled confidence in his side.
"What really surprised me was how, he obviously does a lot of planning and preparation himself, and into the opposition, but he never focused more on the opposition than his own team," Finch said.
“At Bangalore, he was always confident in the XI players that were picked and knew that if you played well, you had every chance of winning.
“I was really surprised by how confident he was in everyone, he had a lot of time for everyone. He was great around the group, a lot more relaxed. I had never played with him, I had only played against him.”
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