Apart from his batting prowess, Virat Kohli is also known for his aggressive style and on-field banters with the opponent players. There have been several occasions when Kohli got involved in a banter or sledging with a player from the opponent’s side and went on to reply with his bat. Recently, former Australia cricketer Joe Burns revealed how his sledge to Kohli backfired on him.
Joe Burns, who played from Australia previously in international cricket, is now captain of the National Cricket team of Italy. In his recent interview, Burns recalled an incident from the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground during 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy down under, where he tried to taunt Virat Kohli by asking him to play some shots. However, it didn’t end well for the Aussie player who was playing his debut Test match.
Virat was not someone to mess with: Joe Burns
Recalling the incident from the MCG Test in 2014, Joe Burns revealed that when he tried to sledge Virat Kohli, the Indian batter replied with a four through covers. After that, Burns didn’t say anything to him for the next four days.
“I’m fairly certain Virat scored 100 that day. There was a little bit of chirp going on. Not sledging, just obviously we got Hadzi behind the stumps and Watto at first slip. Nathan Lyon was bowling, so I’m in close. I think it’d been four hours. I hadn’t said a word. I think I said one line. I said to him, ‘Virat, you got to play some shots,” Joe Burns said in his interview with CricTracker.
“He stopped the bowler, stopped Nathan Lyon, turned to me and said, ‘You don’t talk, rookie.’ Next ball he faced up, smacked it through covers. It was very embarrassing for me. I didn’t say a word the next four days after that, but it showed me that Virat was not someone to mess with,” he further added.
Virat Kohli was star performer in that game scoring 169 runs in the first innings. He also contributed with 54 runs in the second innings as the Test match ended in a draw.
