The Aussie revealed his main goal was to disturb Virat Kohli's focus.
Former India skipper Virat Kohli is known for his fiery attitude and aggression on the field.
Echoing on the same lines, former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine opened up recently on how he tried to get under Kohli’s skin against everyone’s advice.
Tim Paine highlighted that others warned him that sledging will only motivate Kohli further but the ex-Aussie skipper didn’t pay heed to any notice.
Paine mentioned that whether Australia tried to verbally challenge Kohli or not, the former Indian captain remained highly consistent with his batting performance. The 39-year-old commented that his primary aim would be to disrupt the star batter’s focus.
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Speaking exclusively to to CricTracker, the veteran wicketkeeper stated,
“People used to say, don’t sledge Virat. If you don’t sledge Virat… most of the time 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 and 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.”
India has had a strong record against Australia in recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. The Men in Blue triumphed over Australia 2-1 in the 2023 series, securing the prestigious trophy for the fourth consecutive time.
Under Virat Kohli’s leadership, India made history in 2018-19 by becoming the first Asian team to win a Test series in Australia. They continued their success by winning another Test series on Australian soil, defeating the hosts 2-1 in 2020-21. Tim Paine was Australia’s captain during both series losses.
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