Their on-field banter spilled over to the press conference room as Virat Kohli didn’t care for the call ‘what happens on the field remains on the field’. The trigger point being when Mitchell Johnson threw a ball back at the striker end after Kohli played one in the follow through, it hit Kohli and that got two of them going throughout the day at the MCG.
“I was really annoyed with him hitting me with the ball, and I told him that’s not on,” Kohli said. ” ‘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, [and to] back myself. There’s no good reason that I should respect unnecessarily some people when they are not respecting me.”
Focusing on why he treats the Australians with special batting knocks one after another, Kohli reasons in combative spirit: “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.”
“You always have a few who can’t keep calm in every team. So I have my targets,” Kohli said while chuckling. To Kohli, it is Australia’s superior position in the series that is the reason why their tongue is waging.
“Some words coming out of their mouth. They have the right to talk I guess. They are two-nil up right now. Would have been interesting if it had been 1-1, and the same sort of sentences or words had come through from them. It is funny. When you are on top you can sort of say anything you want. It’s when the chips are down that you have got to stand up. Say what you have to say and then go out there and prove it. When we played in India there weren’t so many words coming back from them. Which was surprising. We are two-nil down, we still took them on today, and showed what we can do with the bat, which is the character of this Indian team.”
That was not enough to get at Johnson, Virat added: “There he (Johnson) was batting(Brisbane) , and there was no pressure on him as a batsman. That’s not his job. His job is to take wickets and he was going at 4.7 an over today. Didn’t get a wicket throughout the day, and I backed myself to take him on even if I keep talking to him. You cannot then back off after saying a few words and then not show it with your skill. I decided whenever he comes on to bowl I will back myself and take him on. I don’t mind having a word back neither does he, so we kept going on.”
Though fully embroiled in this hard fought bilateral series, Kohli was in no mood to indulge in a bilateral exchange of respects.
“I respect quite a few of them, but someone who doesn’t respect me I have no reason to respect him,” Kohli said. “There were words in Adelaide as well where they said, ‘No unnecessary respect for him.’ I said, ‘I don’t need it. I am out here to play cricket, not to hear anyone’s respect. As long as I am scoring runs, I am happy with it. If you like it, good. If you don’t, I am not bothered.’ I don’t really need to care about what they think as far as respecting me or me respecting them is concerned. I have got a nice friendship with a few of them. Friendly chats, but someone who is not backing off, someone who is saying anything that comes to mouth I have no reason to respect him.”
Ryan Harris could not believe what Kohli just said before him at the press conference. Harris said: “We all respect him. He’s a pretty good player so I don’t know where he gets that from. I respect him, and I know all the boys in the change room respect him because he has come out and his bat does the talking. Where he gets that from I am not sure. There’s a bit of banter on the field, but if that doesn’t stay out there and comes up here, he needs to have a look at that.”
“We try not to say too much to him, but sometimes he brings it on himself, I guess, when he starts it. It’s never personal, it’s always a bit of fun.It’s interesting to hear him say [all] that. It’s probably a good thing. Because he’s probably worried about that. We need him to worry about that instead of batting. If he’s worrying about stuff like that, hopefully his batting goes downhill. That’s probably the way we think.”
The Kohli-Johnson Confrontation enters the Press Event at MCG
Sai Mohapatra’s Report
Their on-field banter spilled over to the press conference room as Virat Kohli didn’t care for the call ‘what happens on the field remains on the field’. The trigger point being when Mitchell Johnson threw a ball back at the striker end after Kohli played one in the follow through, it hit Kohli and that got two of them going throughout the day at the MCG.
“I was really annoyed with him hitting me with the ball, and I told him that’s not on,” Kohli said. ” ‘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, [and to] back myself. There’s no good reason that I should respect unnecessarily some people when they are not respecting me.”
Focusing on why he treats the Australians with special batting knocks one after another, Kohli reasons in combative spirit: “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.”
“You always have a few who can’t keep calm in every team. So I have my targets,” Kohli said while chuckling. To Kohli, it is Australia’s superior position in the series that is the reason why their tongue is waging.
“Some words coming out of their mouth. They have the right to talk I guess. They are two-nil up right now. Would have been interesting if it had been 1-1, and the same sort of sentences or words had come through from them. It is funny. When you are on top you can sort of say anything you want. It’s when the chips are down that you have got to stand up. Say what you have to say and then go out there and prove it. When we played in India there weren’t so many words coming back from them. Which was surprising. We are two-nil down, we still took them on today, and showed what we can do with the bat, which is the character of this Indian team.”
That was not enough to get at Johnson, Virat added: “There he (Johnson) was batting(Brisbane) , and there was no pressure on him as a batsman. That’s not his job. His job is to take wickets and he was going at 4.7 an over today. Didn’t get a wicket throughout the day, and I backed myself to take him on even if I keep talking to him. You cannot then back off after saying a few words and then not show it with your skill. I decided whenever he comes on to bowl I will back myself and take him on. I don’t mind having a word back neither does he, so we kept going on.”
Though fully embroiled in this hard fought bilateral series, Kohli was in no mood to indulge in a bilateral exchange of respects.
“I respect quite a few of them, but someone who doesn’t respect me I have no reason to respect him,” Kohli said. “There were words in Adelaide as well where they said, ‘No unnecessary respect for him.’ I said, ‘I don’t need it. I am out here to play cricket, not to hear anyone’s respect. As long as I am scoring runs, I am happy with it. If you like it, good. If you don’t, I am not bothered.’ I don’t really need to care about what they think as far as respecting me or me respecting them is concerned. I have got a nice friendship with a few of them. Friendly chats, but someone who is not backing off, someone who is saying anything that comes to mouth I have no reason to respect him.”
Ryan Harris could not believe what Kohli just said before him at the press conference. Harris said: “We all respect him. He’s a pretty good player so I don’t know where he gets that from. I respect him, and I know all the boys in the change room respect him because he has come out and his bat does the talking. Where he gets that from I am not sure. There’s a bit of banter on the field, but if that doesn’t stay out there and comes up here, he needs to have a look at that.”
“We try not to say too much to him, but sometimes he brings it on himself, I guess, when he starts it. It’s never personal, it’s always a bit of fun.It’s interesting to hear him say [all] that. It’s probably a good thing. Because he’s probably worried about that. We need him to worry about that instead of batting. If he’s worrying about stuff like that, hopefully his batting goes downhill. That’s probably the way we think.”
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