Kohli's antics promise a new dawn of a far more combative India at the Sydney Cricket Ground, scene of the infamous "monkeygate" clash between Ricky Ponting's Australians and the touring Indians seven years ago.
Relations between the Australians and India's in-form new leader are already far from rosy. He said in Melbourne he'd been called a "spoilt brat" by the Australians, that he respected only a few of them, and has engaged in emotion-charged clashes with Johnson and Brad Haddin in the middle.
Elsewhere, he has led the provocative chirp in the field, with Australia's dismal "homework" tour of India in 2013 a prominent topic.
"Yeah, Virat has mentioned that a couple of times," Johnson said. "He's mentioned his scores, mentioned the 4-0, even the Swami Army have mentioned it as well.
"It keeps getting rubbed in a little bit, but we just move on, we play each game and we try and win each game we play, so we're not too worried about it."
The interesting thing about Kohli's bellicosity is it makes him more similar to some of the more vocal Australians than they would probably like to admit.
Aggression is the unapologetic stock in trade of the Australian players, who when asked will answer that sledging is entirely acceptable as long as it doesn't "cross the line".
Where that imaginary line is drawn is not quite clear. It essentially prohibits physical contact and racism but not a great deal else.
It's why Johnson calls the repeated fracas with Kohli "harmless" despite Australia being annoyed in Melbourne at Kohli's breach of that unwritten rule - that what happens on the field should stay on it.
"He's an interesting character and he really does like to get involved in it all," Johnson said. "But I think you can get him to a point where the emotions do come in and that's where you do want to get him to I think, and that's where the mind games come in, so that's why I think it's all harmless.
"Firstly, we're playing them on skill and part of it is to try and get into his mind a little bit as well.
"We saw after I threw the ball at the stumps [at the MCG] and he happened to be in the way of the stumps he didn't really like that too much. No one does like having a ball thrown at them. I apologised and moved on.
"I thought we'd moved on and he started to play a few rash shots after that, so we saw him losing his cool a little bit then, and then a few more words in the middle and then back to it.
"We saw an opportunity there and we'll see how he goes as captain now."
