Before the records and greatness, Brett Lee knew Virat Kohli would be special: ‘It was there in his eyes’

Brett Lee recalls spotting Virat Kohli's fierce mentality in his eyes as a youngster, while defending his record against relentless modern-day scrutiny.

Brett Lee saw Virat Kohli before the hundreds, the records and the weight of becoming the biggest name in Indian cricket. What struck the former Australia quick then was not merely the young batter’s technique or talent. It was his eyes.

Virat Kohli for RCB. (X Images)

Lee believes Kohli possessed a competitive intensity that separated him from others even at the beginning of his international journey, recalling the unmistakable message he sensed whenever the two came up against each other.

“You can see it in his eyes. There are sportspeople that, they’ve got it and they might not have it at the start, but they’ve got that mental attitude, whether they can just focus more than other people,” Lee said on The Ranveer Show. “And you’ve seen his eyes. He looks straight at you and just — not looks through you — but like, ‘It’s game on and you aren’t gonna get me out.’ I saw that when I played against him. You see it now. He’s had an incredible career.”

Lee’s recollection offered a glimpse into the mentality that would eventually accompany Kohli through one of the most decorated careers in the game. But the former Australian pacer believes judging that career requires understanding something beyond runs and records: the extraordinary pressure attached to being India’s foremost cricketer.

‘If he hasn’t scored one run, he’s past his best — it’s all rubbish’

Lee placed Kohli in a lineage that began with Sunil Gavaskar before moving through Sachin Tendulkar, with each generation producing a player expected to shoulder the expectations of Indian cricket.

It is also why, in Lee’s view, comparisons across eras can become misleading. “The other thing too, like the other reason why you can’t compare eras is because think of what Sunny Bhai did. You know, Sunny Gavaskar, he was massive, right?” Lee said. “And then Sachin Tendulkar then became the guy that would try to take that mantelpiece off — well, that trophy away from him. Then Sachin got the glory of the 1.5 billion people back then that were all supporting him, and he had to carry the weight of them on his shoulders. Then you throw in Kohli that came to take over from Sachin.”

For Kohli, however, Lee believes that inheritance arrived with another challenge that his predecessors did not experience on anything approaching the same scale: social media. “Kohli’s had to deal with all the social media too. So they had the press back in our day, but there was no social media, thank God,” Lee said. And now Kohli is going to deal with all the stuff that’s written about him sometimes.

“And as I said, everyone’s got a camera. Everyone’s a journalist. People can think what they want. If he hasn’t scored one run in a game that he’s past his best, it’s all rubbish. Like, how about his record? His record is impeccable. It’s incredible.”

It was an emphatic defence of a player whose every innings has increasingly been viewed through the prism of what it means for his larger career. Lee’s argument was that the numbers themselves should provide perspective. Kohli has spent years carrying expectations inherited from Tendulkar while operating in an age where every dismissal, gesture and lean spell can instantly become a public debate. For Lee, however, the qualities he first noticed remain central to understanding Kohli. Before there was a vast record to defend, there were those eyes staring back at the bowler and sending a much simpler message: game on.