Ex-Australian Captain Tim Paine on people asking him to avoid sledging Virat Kohli
Former captain of team Australia Tim Paine said that many people told him not to sledge India batting star ViratKohli, which used to annoy him. Kohli holds the edge over the Aussies and has a tremendous record with 2042 runs in 25 Tests. He is the fifth-highest run-getter for India in red-ball cricket versus Australia.
Meanwhile, Tim Paine, who was one of Kohli’s old Australian nemeses at one stage, suggested that there are equal chances of the Indian star scoring runs irrespective of whether he gets sledged or not.
Paine said, “People used to say, Don’t sledge Virat. If you don’t sledge Virat, most of the time you still get runs, so it doesn’t really matter whether you’re talking to him or not. I wouldn’t try too much to fire up Virat, but I would try to distract him if I could, because if you can get a bit of a distraction, he might play a bad shot or lose his concentration. But it used to annoy me when people say, Oh, don’t sledge him, because people don’t get better because someone’s talking to them.”
Kohli led India to their first-ever Test series win over Australia Down Under during the 2018-19 tour, where Paine was leading the home team. The visitors went on to complete a historic Test series win against the Aussies on that tour. The former India captain will resume his rivalry with the Australian team later this year in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will be held Down Under this time.