Brett Lee Picks Steve Smith Over Virat Kohli On Account Of Adversity Australian Batting Great Had To Overcome

"Kohli is technically sound, he hits through the V, he used to knick off earlier in his career, but it is hard to do that now, he is a great leader of his side, I think he would love to win the IPL," he added.

Steve Smith

Former Australian seam bowling great Brett Lee showered praises on Aussie batting spearhead Steve Smith, stating that Smith could go onto become as good as the legendary batsman Don Bradman. Lee picked Smith over India's prolific run scorer Virat Kohli on account of the adversity the Australian had to overcome in his international career.

Lee was doing an Instagram live session with former Zimbabwe pacer Pommie Mbangwa and he was asked to pick one of the modern day batting greats between Smith and Kohli.

Answering the question, Lee replied: "Look, it is so hard to pick, there are so many qualities in both that I enjoy, from the bowling of point I am trying to look are there any flaws in both batsmen, both of these batsmen are genuine".

"Kohli is technically sound, he hits through the V, he used to knick off earlier in his career, but it is hard to do that now, he is a great leader of his side, I think he would love to win the IPL," he added.

ICC handed Steve Smith a one-year ban from international cricket in 2018 for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in the Cape Town Test against South Africa.

However, the batsman came back with a bang in 2019 and he contributed significantly to Australia's Test wins in the 2019 Ashes series and was also among the runs in the ICC World Cup held in the United Kingdom.

"Steve Smith has been through a lot in the last couple of years, he has seen a rise with the way he played in the last 12 months, he is so fidgety, sometimes you are like just relax mate," Lee said.

"At the moment I would choose Smith over Kohli because of what he has been through and what he has to overcome, they are two great players, I think Smith can be as good as Don Bradman, there have been talks of him becoming just like Bradman looking at the numbers" he added.

Currently, Smith is holding the number one position in the ICC Test match rankings for batsmen while Kohli occupies the second place. When it comes to ODIs, Kohli is at the pole position, while Smith is outside the the top ten. Both India and Australia are slated to play a four-match Test series later this year.

India stands atop in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings while Australia is just one place below at the second place.