Tim Paine celebrates as Virat Kohli looks dejected after he was dismissed by Nathan Lyon.
Everyone knows that Indian skipper Virat Kohli is a fiery character and has got a bit of a lip on him. According to him, that's just the way he plays and is never afraid to exchange verbals on the field. After the much-publicized spat between him and Australian skipper Tim Paine that continued on the 4th Day of the Perth Test, it was the latter who continued with the banter even though Kohli was not on the field.
During the start of India's chase of 287, the wicket-keeper batsman was heard on the stump mic badmouthing his counterpart to the visitor's opener Murali Vijay. While standing up to the stumps, Paine said to Vijay: "I know he's your captain but you can't seriously like him as a bloke".
The exchanges which started during the last session on Day 3 seem to have originated after Kohli was given out caught, a decision he believed to be dubious. When Paine returned to bat in Australia's second innings, Kohli turned up the blows.
"If he messes it up, it's 2-0," Kohli said, which was picked up by the microphone after he and his teammates made a loud caught-behind appeal for Paine in the final over of the day.
The Australian captain did not hold himself back and replied: "You've got to bat first big head".
There is no doubt that Kohli has been quite aggressive with his antics on the field but as long as the banter doesn't turn physical, there is no point in calling it anything out of the ordinary. After all, Test cricket tends to bring out the best or the worst of every cricketer. Just in Kohli's case, it works both ways.
