Virat Kohli goes 'Dilli boy' on Mitchell Johnson and we love it

Virat Kohli’s press conferences are – like his batting – a breath of fresh air. They are also unburdened by prejudice. Most Indian players usually stick to cliches in front of the press but India’s captain-in-waiting has no qualms about saying what he ‘really’ thought about the situation and that is a truly refreshing change. Of course, if you can just talk well… that wouldn’t amount to much. But if you can score runs and paint an accurate picture too, you are gold. Kohli’s 169 on the third day of the Boxing Day Test was a supreme innings – filled with pulls, drives and a fight with Mitchell Johnson – and it took India to 462-8 at close of play. The visitors are still trailing by 68 runs with two wickets remaining in the first innings but we are in for a thriller and India has once again managed to be competitive. Kohli’s 169 runs were the second most by an Indian in a day’s play in Australia. Only Virender Sehwag’s 195 on this very ground in 2003 tops his effort. And his 262-run stand with Ajinkya Rahane was the highest since Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman’s epic 353-run stand at Sydney in 2004. It wasn’t record-breaking but it was pretty close. [caption id=“attachment_2019513” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kohli’s 169 on the third day of the Boxing Day Test was a supreme innings – filled with pulls, drives and a fight with Mitchell Johnson. Getty Images[/caption] It is almost impossible to see India show this kind of intent without Kohli being around these days. In that sense, the Lord’s win earlier this year was an exception. In his own way, he has become a man India can count on and he is still learning… learning all the right things. And through it all, he remains his own man. “I know I was criticised for not getting big hundreds and it was disappointing to get out for 115-120. But today, I got a feel for building up big hundreds in Tests and so did Jinks (Rahane). It is all about learning with every innings. Next time I get a chance, I will look to make a double,” said Kohli at the end of the day. “Today was a learning curve for me. Instinctively, I was being positive from ball one. And even though it’s good to get a fifty or a hundred, milestones are not the criteria for me. Winning is,” he further added. When Kohli came up against a problem in England, he worked on it and rectified it. Today, the bat no longer swings down from first slip, it is much straighter and the result is that fewer edges go down to the slip region. For Australia, he made another change to his batting technique. “The good length spot is on the fourth stump, so I was mostly standing outside the crease for that. I hit a few drives, and then the bowler doesn’t quite know what to do. It is a new thing I have tried and so far it has come off.” It is the little things that eventually decide how good a player becomes. But there are certain things that a player should never change. Kohli’s aggression is one of them. He wants to get better but on his own terms and he wants to let the opposition know what those terms are. So when he got hit by Johnson while backing up, he was pretty annoyed. It seemed to throw him off kilter for a bit. The next two overs were shaky – he went for shots that weren’t there, he attacked and he bristled with aggression. But then he regained his calm. “I told him that is not on. Try and hit the stumps next time. Not my body. (For) no good reason should I respect someone unnecessarily. Jinks helped. He kept taking him on. So that’s how you play Test cricket. I kept taking the bowler on from my end. You have to help each other,” he said. “The chatter was on throughout. They called me a spoilt brat and I said maybe that’s how I am. You hate me and I like that.” The Aussies love to chat but so does Kohli. They do that to get an advantage; they do it to ruffle the best opposition batsman but the Delhi lad wasn’t about to back down either. He didn’t see the point of it. It was always going to be a keen contest and this is how it should be. We often talk about not wanting to see robots on the field but when we see that happen sometimes we wonder if it is a bit too much. “I respect quite a few of them but someone who doesn’t respect me, doesn’t get it from me either. I don’t care what they think – as far as me respecting them or them not respecting me. Someone who is not backing off and saying whatever he wants, I have no respect for them.” “They have the right to talk now. They are 2-0 up but it would have be interesting to see what they would have said if it was 1-1. We are 2-0 down and still took them on today. Showed what we can do with the bat, which is the character of our team.” Far too often in the past, India would just back down or speak up at the wrong time. But the series is on the line and if there is a time to ruffle Australian feathers then it is now. And there is no better man to do it than the one who has already smashed three centuries against them in five innings. When Sourav Ganguly asked him at the end of the day whether India would consider chasing a target of 350 on the final day, Kohli’s reply left no doubt. “Absolutely. The intent is always there. We will go for it. This time we would like to cross the line.” Now, if that isn’t a statement of intent, then nothing is. Australia may be ahead but they certainly won’t be resting easy.