Former Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson lashed out at the Indian skipper Virat Kohli as he called him “disrespectful” and “silly” in his approach to fellow skipper Tim Paine during the Perth Test. The duo had got into a heated argument during the game that Australia won, at one point prompting intervention from the umpire.
It was reported that Virat belittled Paine as just “a stand-in captain”, although the Indian team management angrily denied he said it. However, Johnson said the famously combative Kohli’s antics were unnecessary.
In his column for Fox Sports, the pacer wrote, “At the end of the match, you should be able to look each other in the eyes, shake hands and say ‘great contest’. Virat Kohli could not do that with Tim Paine, shaking the Australian captain’s hand but barely making eye contact with him. To me, that is disrespectful. Kohli gets away with more than most cricketers simply because he is Virat Kohli and he gets placed on a pedestal but this Test left the Indian captain looking silly.”
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After the game, which Australia won by 146 runs to the level the series 1-1, both Paine and Virat attempted to play down their on-field sledging, which was often picked up by stump microphones. Kohli described it as simply banter that was part and parcel of Test match cricket. He said as long as there is no swearing the line doesn’t get crossed.
But Johnson said Kohli’s behavior was contradictory to his pre-series claims that he was a changed man and didn’t plan to initiate any confrontations.
Johnson wrote, “What we saw this Test says otherwise. From my experiences with him and what I am seeing as an observer now, not much has changed. It was disappointing and that is not the only area where he let himself down.”
The veteran fast bowler also took offense with Kohli’s failure to acknowledge the crowd’s applause after Peter Handscomb took a controversial catch to dismiss him for a sublime 123 in the first innings.
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Describing the same, Mitchell said, “To me, the catch was given out so you accept it and move on and as a player who has scored a hundred you acknowledge the standing ovation. After the play, he came out and said he had ‘no reason to respect’ me. He lost me then.”
