"Should hope that he doesn't bring that intensity": Shane Watson issues big warning to Australia about Virat

Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson believes if Indian stalwart Virat Kohli brings out the intensity he is known for, he will be at his "very best". Virat has been striving hard to regain his lost rich vein of form in red-ball cricket for the past couple of years. The signs of worry have been existing in the shadows since 2020. The 'Chase Master' has faced an elongated lean patch in the longest format of cricket.

In the last four years, Virat has managed just 1,838 runs from 34 Tests, averaging 31.68, comprising just two centuries and nine fifties. As the tag of dry run continues to loom around his name, expectations have significantly mounted around Virat to play a decisive role across the five Tests. Watson, who has seen Virat produce his magic in different roles, feels in recent times, the Indian stalwart has struggled to maintain his "superhuman" level of intensity.

"The one thing that I know about Virat is because he's the fire burning so brightly and deeply inside of him, the intensity that he brings to every ball that he is engaging in a game has been superhuman. But there has been in recent times, moments in his career when that fire started to go out because it is so hard to maintain that intensity," Watson said in the Willow Talk Podcast.

With the flame of intensity dwindling for some time, Virat's lean patch has prolonged. But Watson issued a warning to the Australian team. He claimed the hosts should hope that the Indian star walks into the series without that intensity, if he does, then the world will witness the best of Virat.

"That is where the Australian team needs to leave him alone, and hope that he doesn't bring that intensity. If he brings that, then that just shuts everything out, and that's when he will be at his very best. But if stuff is going on and that intensity is not there, then you see that not the best version of Virat," he noted.

The much-awaited series opener will begin in Perth on Friday and could decide the fate of the World Test Championship final. (ANI)