Virat Kohli of India gestures with his middle finger to the crowd
Having played 343 matches for India, captain Virat Kohli's performance graph has seen a tremendous rise since his debut against Sri Lanka at Dambulla in 2008. Besides many achievements to celebrate so far in his impressive career, Kohli has some memories to regret as well.
Among many controversies and Kohli's embarrassing moments due to his aggression, the pinnacle of his short temper came in view when he was spotted flicking the middle finger at Australian spectators during a Test match in Sydney in 2012.
Recalling the embarrassing moment, Kohli recently told Wisden in an interview that he requested the match referee not to ban him for flicking finger at Australian spectators.
Kohli said: "The one thing I remember most is when I’d had enough of the Australian crowd at Sydney [in 2012] and I just decided to flick a [middle] finger at them. ‘I’m so cool’. The match referee [Ranjan Madugalle] called me to his room the next day and I’m like, ‘What’s wrong?’. He said, ‘What happened at the boundary yesterday?’. I said, ‘Nothing, it was a bit of banter’. Then he threw the newspaper in front of me and there was this big image of me flicking on the front page and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me!’."
Kohli admitted that he may have "got away" with what he did but recalling the things he did when he was younger make him laugh. "I got away with that one. He was a nice guy, he understood I was young and these things happen."
"I really laugh at a lot of the things I did when I was younger but I’m proud that I did not change my ways because I was always going to be who I am and not change for the world or for anyone else. I was pretty happy with who I was," the 29-year-old India skipper added.
Kohli is currently engaged in the ongoing Test series with England. Under the captaincy, India have already lost the five-match series with a match to go. The fifth and final Test of the series will be played at The Oval, starting on Friday.
Despite India's series loss, Kohli has much to celebrate on the England tour as he silenced his critics with an improved show and claimed the No 1 Test ranking. In 2014, Kohli managed to score just 134 runs in five Test matches at a dismal batting average of 13.40. This time, he already has 544 runs to his name in four matches, along with two centuries.
