Kohli, 36, came in for heavy criticism in the run-up to the Perth Test after scoring only 192 runs in his previous 10 innings and posting an average of 15.50 in India's three home test defeats by New Zealand.
Overcoming his recent lean patch in the longest format, Virat Kohli blazed his 30th Test ton and his first in Australia since 2018 on Day 3 of the opening Border-Gavaskar series Test in Perth.
India head into the first of five Tests against Australia on Friday in Perth on the back of their first home series loss in 12 years.
India won 2-1 against Australia on both of their last two Test tours, but suffered a 3-0 whitewash at home to New Zealand last month.
Shastri was referring to Kohli’s exceptional performances in Australia thus far - including a fighting Test ton in Adelaide in his first-ever Test tour in 2011/12, a staggering 692 runs at 86.50 from his four Tests during his second visit in 2014 and captaining India to their first-ever series win in the country in 2018/19 during which he scored an exceptional 123 in Perth.
India coach Gautam Gambhir on Monday backed "incredibly tough men" Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to prove their critics wrong and find form in Australia.
With Australia looming large, the form of 37-year-old Rohit and superstar batsman Kohli, 35, is of particular concern to Indian cricket fans.
Jadeja told reporters that "everything happened in 10 minutes", and the team "did not get time to react".
Through three World Cup titles, two World Test Championship (WTC) finals, and a 12-year Test series winning streak on home soil, Kohli and Sharma, often together, have been integral to every major Indian success of the last 17 years.
Virat Kohli struck the first century of this year's Indian Premier League as he steered Royal Challengers Bengaluru to 183-3 against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday.
Speedster Mayank Yadav bowled the quickest ball of the new IPL season at 156.7 km/h (97.4 mph) in a fiery spell to power Lucknow Super Giants to a 28-run win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“Not only a fairplay award, they should be given an Oscar,” Gavaskar said.
Virat Kohli batted out the innings for Royal Challengers Bengaluru with his second straight Indian Premier League half-century on Friday but Kolkata Knight Riders still cruised to a seven-wicket victory.
Australia have released details of their schedule for their upcoming home summer, which includes the visit of Pakistan for six white-ball contests and the eagerly awaited Test series against India.
"I know my name is just attached to promoting the game in many parts of the world when it comes to T20 cricket, but still got it I guess," Kohli told presenter Harsha Bhogle after being named man of the match.
Kohli now joins West Indies’ Chris Gayle and Australia’s David Warner in this prestigious club.
The 17th edition of the world's richest cricket league is expected to end close to the June 1 start of the World Cup in the West Indies and United States.
The India batting stalwart made a heartfelt plea to the fans during the high-profile RCB Unbox event ahead of IPL 2024 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday, where RCB was rechristened as Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Pandya has been out of action since last October after suffering an ankle injury during a 50-overs World Cup match in Pune.
