Australia vs India 2018: Virat Kohli Was Disrespectful During Handshake With Tim Paine

Former Australia seamer Mitchell Johnson believes the Indian skipper Virat Kohli was disrespectable during his handshake with Tim Paine. Kohli didn’t look Paine in the eye after the conclusion of the match and went straight after shaking Paine’s hand. Meanwhile, both Tim Paine and Virat Kohli had tried to get under the skin of each other during the second Test match at Perth.

Kohli had come in the way of Tim Paine follow-through when the latter was running between the wickets. In fact, both of them had exchanged a few words with each other after the incident. Thus, Chris Gaffaney had interfered between the two players.

Virat Kohli Should Behave Properly.

“At the end of the match you should be able to look each other in the eyes, shake hands and say ‘great contest,'” Mitchell Johnson wrote in his column for Fox Sports. “Virat Kohli could not do that with Tim Paine, shaking the Australian captain’s hand but barely making eye contact with him. To me, that is disrespectful.

However, Virat Kohli had initially said that he will not be looking to initiate any sledging with the Australian players. Though, it hasn’t been the case as Kohli has tried to prick on the Australian players.

“Kohli gets away with more than most cricketers simply because he is Virat Kohli and he gets placed on a pedestal but this Test left the Indian captain looking silly. Kohli has contradicted the things he said at the start of the series. He said he was a changed person – that he was coming in with a different attitude to last time and wasn’t going to initiate anything. What we saw this Test says otherwise,” he added.

Meanwhile, it is well known that Mitchell Johnson and Virat Kohli have their history of verbal battles. Johnson also recalled one incident when he had hit Kohli on the back while attempting to hit the stumps.

“I apologised immediately because that obviously was not my intention but it sparked a heated debate,” Johnson continued. “After play, he came out and said he had ‘no reason to respect’ me. He lost me then. He is the No.1 batsman in the world at the moment and what he does for his team is great but I’m not sure this is how your captain should behave.”

The third Test match will take place at Melbourne from December 26.