Kohli and Smith battle during ODI series will be interesting: Hussey

New Delhi, Aug 22: Former Australia cricketer Michael Hussey feels there will be a 'battle within the battle' during the upcoming One-Day International series between India and Australia.

The battle which the former Australia batsman referred about is between India skipper Virat Kohli and his Australian counterpart Steve Smith.

As per the former Chennai Super Kings batsman, both Kohli and Smith will aim at outclassing each other with their bat as well as with their captaincy.

Hussey was quoted by The Hindu as saying, "Steve Smith will look at individual battles between him and Kohli. The great players, they like to get one up on each other and the opposition. And both being determined and captains as well, I am sure they will be pushing hard at each other, trying their best to get ahead, score more runs than one another. It will be an interesting battle within the battle, a race within a race."

Australia will tour India in September for a limited-overs series and it promises to be a neck-to-neck contest between the two rivals.

India defeated Australia in 2-1 in the Border Gavaskar Trophy but it was Smith who won the individual battle between him and Kohli. Smith slammed two centuries while Kohli failed to impress in the three Tests he played.

Both Smith and Kohli have been in phenomenal form across all formats in the recent times and both of them are well-versed at playing in the sub-continent.