India’s 2014-15 tour of Australia marked the true arrival of Virat Kohli as India’s next bona fide leader in the Test format during a tour where then-skipper MS Dhoni was ruled out of the first match, and subsequently announced his retirement post the Boxing Day Test at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
While it was the recurring theme of the series where Kohli didn’t take too lightly to sledges and jibes from the hosts, it took an MCG Test debut for former Australia batter and current Italy skipper Joe Burns to understand the Indian batting superstar wasn’t someone you would mess around with. Burns, who led Italy to their maiden T20 World Cup qualification recently, elaborated on how Kohli shunned him with a sharp retort to a poke from the close-in field whilst batting in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test.
After Australia piled on 530, India’s response was shouldered by Kohli’s magnificent 169, during which he dismissed debutant Burns’ attempt to get into his head.
When Kohli shut down rookie Burns
“In my first game, first Test match at the MCG on Boxing Day, I was 24. And first game, I was fielding at bat-pad (close to the batter). And I’m fairly certain, Virat scored 100 that day. But there was a little bit of chirp going on. Not sledging, just obviously we got Hadzi (Brad Haddin) behind the stumps, and Watto (Shane Watson) was 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 think I said to him, ‘Virat, you got to play some shots,’” Burns told CricTracker.
However, Kohli wasn’t going to have any more of that; rather, the jibes only brought out the best in him, remarked Burns.
“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. And I think as a 24-year-old débutant at bat-pad, it wasn’t really the person or in the place to be saying anything to Virat at that point.”
Kohli shaped India’s identity even after retirement
Kohli finished that tour with a sensational 692 runs in eight innings, packed with four centuries, and Burns said that the former India captain had since shaped up the way the team plays, even after his retirement, scoring 9230 runs in 123 matches.
Story continues below this ad
“Virat Kohli doesn’t take a backward step. As I said before, he really shaped that team’s identity. I think even now that he’s not in the team, you can see that the way that India play, it’s really shaped on, the foundations that Virat put in place over a number of years. He’s always a really fierce competitor. I tried not to look at him on the field,” said Burns.
“I didn’t want to engage with him because I knew that that really spurred him on. And I guess you factor in the fact that he’s a world-class batter, one of the greatest of all time. It’s a great combination. And like I said, it really set the identity for the Indian cricket team.”
