Australian coach, Darren Lehmann, who is known for his wit and sense of humor, said that Australia will look to target the newly-appointed Test captain Virat Kohli in the last Test match of the series. Virat Kohli will take over the duty of leading Test side from MS Dhoni, who announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect, after the third Test at the MCG.
The series started on a very emotional note, but after the second Test, in fact after the first innings of the first Test, there has been lots of aggression on the field. It started with David Warner and Varun Aaron, and since then, we have lots of verbal battles on the field. India’s newly-appointed captain Virat Kohli has been leading charge in these verbal battles, as far as India are concerned. Kohli, who is known for his aggression on the field, took it another level in his press conference during the third Test when he said that Australians don’t like him and he has got no problem with it. He also said that he doesn’t Mitchell Johnson because Johnson also has no respect for him.
When a reporter asked Darren Lehmann when the Australians had elicited a similar response from Kohli in Melbourne as the Indians got from Johnson in Brisbane after sledging him, Lehmann said:
“Oh! we haven’t even started with Virat Kohli yet.”
When asked about the debate surrounding Australia’s “late” declaration, Lehmann brushed off any criticism and in fact, criticized India for being defensive in the first hour of day 5. Darren Lehmann said that India should have taken the second new ball and criticized their defensive fielding placements.
“We won the series, didn’t we? That was pretty important on the day for us. But, were we really defensive? Or were India defensive with their tactics? They had five men on the fence, instead of letting us score and declare quickly and getting on with chasing the game,” said Darren Lehmann.
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