Mitchell Johnson expects Virat Kohli to be an aggressive leader for India

Sport360 staff 08:12 03/01/2015
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Top gun: Virat Kohli has struck three centuries and scored nearly 500 runs in the three Tests of the ongoing series against Australia.

    Mitchell Johnson expects India to adopt an aggressive approach in Tests under new captain Virat Kohli.

    The Australian pacer and the Indian star have been at loggerheads throughout the ongoing series and Johnson’s knows lies in store. The left-arm quick expects Kohli to carry his “in your face” attitude to his captaincy and changing the approach of the whole team as well.

    Kohli was made full-time cap­tain of India’s Test team following Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s sudden retirement from Tests after the Mel­bourne game earlier this week.

    Kohli led in the first Test at Adelaide as Dhoni was recovering from an injury as India made a bold dash to chase 364 runs on the final day and lost by 48 runs with Kohli scoring a majestic 141. The 26-year-old’s attitude earned lots of praise back home and in Australia. It was a far cry from Dhoni’s conservative style and Johnson feels Kohli will steer in a different direction.

    “It could be quite interesting because they’re not known for that aggressive type of play,” Johnson said yesterday ahead of the fourth and final Test beginning in Sydney on Tuesday.

    “But ever since I’ve seen him play cricket, I’ve always seen him pretty fiery.

    “So he’ll definitely be an aggres­sive type of captain I think in the way he sets fields, and I think you’ll see a lot different to what MS did.”

    “He’s an interesting character. He is a fierce competitor and he really does like to get involved in it all.

    “It doesn’t matter who he plays against, he plays in your face and that is how he likes to play the game,” Johnson added. Kohli has backed up his words with action, hitting three centuries and scoring 499 runs, at 83.13 in the series so far.

    Johnson feels too much has been made out of his run-ins with Kohli terming it as “harmless” banter.

    “There’s a lot of talk out in the media at the moment on bad sledg­ing and pretty full on stuff but it’s all pretty harmless,” he said.

    “Virat’s just been telling us how many runs he’s scored and we’ve just been saying we’re two-nil up in the series so that’s pretty much it. It’s always been part of the game and always will be.”

    The Aussies, however, are keen to see Kohli’s back early in Sydney, reveals pacer Josh Hazlewood.

    “He’s a key wicket for us and I think if we can attack and get him early, everyone else follows suit a bit.

    “We’ll try to come up with some­thing for Virat, and I think it’s just a case of being boring, as bad as it sounds, just try to bore him down and keep him on strike, keep the dots flowing, build that pressure and hopefully he’ll crack,” he said.

    Recommended