It was a sort of baptism by fire when Virat Kohli went on his maiden tour to Australia in 2012. Cricketing in Australia is never easy because the crowd and media can get pretty aggressive. And Kohli fell prey to this when he visited them for the first time. The crowd abused him with words continuously; some of them even used defamatory language against his mother and sister.
Infuriated by the hostility, Virat Kohli gave it back by flipping his middle finger at the stands in a gesture that was not missed. Front-page headlines captured the news the next morning and Kohli was hauled up before match referee Ranjan Madugalle. Kohli contended that the incident was only banter and appealed for leniency.
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Reflecting on the incident in an interview with Wisden, Virat Kohli remembered: “I remember being at Sydney and having enough of the Australian crowd. I decided to flick my finger at them. The match referee called me to his room the next day and asked about the incident. I insisted it was just a bit of banter,” he said.
Virat’s middle finger incident.” ( India’s 2012 tour of Australia )
Virat kohli – “They threw the newspaper in front of me and there was this big image of me flicking on the front page and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me!”.#ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/Zo6FHNxsYy https://t.co/KtUiGle4dt
— Sports with naveen (@sportswnaveen) September 7, 2024
An astounded Virat Kohli was made to see the front-page headline carrying his gesture and begged profusely to avoid the ban. More recently, in a tour that has just about seen its worst, it was in Adelaide when India was bowled out for 36 runs, the lowest-ever total in an innings.
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Virat Kohli had to leave the team after the first Test owing to the birth of his first child. His absence notwithstanding, India won the series 2-1. Presently, Kohli gears up for a return to Australia later in the year with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But even as his equation with Australia has changed over the years, nothing has changed in his determination to excel in Test cricket.
