India and Australia will be up against one another in the upcoming WTC 2023 Final at The Oval. Tempers are once again set to flare as the two teams battle it out for the ultimate prize in Test cricket, for which they have fought hard over a two-year cycle.
Hogging the limelight will once again be India’s talisman character: Virat Kohli.
Kohli and Australia go back a long way. From a young, brash, rising cricket back in 2011/12 to now a legend, once-in-a-generation batsman. He has taken the Australian bowlers to a liking: he has scored 1979 runs in 24 Tests against Australia at an average of 48, including five fifties and 8 centuries with a highest score of 186.
The 34-year-old is back to his best, having creamed centuries in all formats in the past few months and comes into the WTC Final with back-to-back hundreds in the IPL.
In the heat of the battle, as both teams yearn for the WTC Final victory and the Test mace, there could be verbal vollies flying around, more so involving Virat Kohli, who has never backed down from a verbal duel.
The Delhi-born has had some epic heated battles with the Australians, shutting them down with his bat and with his mouth.
Here are 3 epic heated sledging moments between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma:
“They were calling me a spoilt brat”
On the 2014/15 tour Down Under, the world saw the most aggressive side of Virat. When the Aussies – players and crowd – taunted him, Kohli, unlike the Indian cricketers of the past, gave it back to the Aussies and that would also take them by surprise. As Kohli neared his century, things got even more heated between him and the Australians.
Later, Kohli has his most explosive press conference with the journalists.
Bringing his attacking form from the field to the presser later in the day, “I was really annoyed with him hitting me with the ball, and I told him that’s not on.”
“‘Try and hit the stumps next time, not my body.’ You have got to send the right message across. I am not there to take to some unnecessary words or chats from someone. I am going there to play cricket, back myself. There’s no good reason that I should respect unnecessarily some people when they are not respecting me.”
“It was going on throughout the day,” Kohli said. “They were calling me a spoilt brat, and I said, ‘Maybe that’s the way I am. You guys hate me, and I like that.’ I don’t mind having a chat on the field, and it worked in my favour I guess. I like playing against Australia because it is very hard for them to stay calm, and I don’t mind an argument on the field, and it really excites me and brings the best out of me. So they don’t seem to be learning the lesson.”
The Aussies, in particular Ryan Harris, retaliated to Kohli’s words about them.
WATCH: Virat Kohli replies to Australians’ sledging:
Virat Kohli vs Tim Paine
On the 2018/19 tour, where India won their first-ever Test series in Australia under Kohli’s captaincy, things got tense between Kohli and Tim Paine, the Australian captain, that it almost became physical!
The Aussie and Indian captain in the Perth Test were in each other’s ears. Both played remarkable innings with the bat for their teams.
This was the closest two players could get to without getting physical. So much that the umpires had to intervene and calm Kohli down.
Watch: Tempers flare between Kohli and Paine
https://youtube.com/shorts/So5QQHINMsU?feature=share
Flying Kiss and more to Mitchell Johnson
Mitchell Johnson had destroyed England at home in 2013/14, but Kohli was not intimidated by the fierce Johnson. When the two met in the 2014/15 series, the star Indian batsman was hit by Johnson from a throw and fell down.
Kohli got back up again and resumed to smash Johnson for a flurry of boundaries around the ground. This ended up with Kohli blowing a flying kiss to Johnson which rattled the Aussie pacer.
https://youtu.be/leJ4_YqE8NE