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Former Australian captain Tim Paine recently revealed that he used to get annoyed when people advised him against sledging Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli during matches. Paine, who led Australia against India in the 2018-19 series, said he believed sledging could potentially distract Kohli and cause him to make mistakes, even if it didn’t prevent him from scoring runs.
Annoyed Tim Paine
“People used to say, don’t sledge Virat. If you don’t sledge Virat… most of the time still get runs, so it doesn’t really matter whether you’re talking to him or not,” Paine told CricTracker.
However, he maintained that he wouldn’t try to fire up Kohli too much but instead aim to distract him. As if he could get a bit of a distraction, Kohli might play a rash shot or lose his concentration.
“I wouldn’t try too much to fire up Virat, but I would try and distract him if I could because if you can get a bit of a distraction, he might play a bad shot or lose his concentration. But it used to annoy me when people say, oh, don’t sledge him, because people don’t get better because someone’s talking to them,” Paine added.
He argued that while Kohli may still score runs regardless of whether he is sledged, the act of sledging can still unsettle him and potentially lead to a lapse in concentration.
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Battle of banters
The verbal battle between Paine and Kohli came to a head during India’s tour of Australia in 2018-19, when Kohli led his team to their first-ever Test series win in Australia. In an Amazon documentary titled “The Test”
Paine described the incident, saying, “I was just sitting and watching him and he gave few of our guys send-offs. The plan was not to talk to him when he was batting.”
Paine went on to say that when Australia was batting, he felt it was up to each player whether they wanted to engage in sledging. He admitted that he had enough and wanted to stand up for himself and his teammates, leading him to confront Kohli.
“He was trying to upset me with the part-time captain and I sort of went the opposite with him. I was sort of telling him how good he was and that he was the greatest player ever. You don’t want to get right into a fight with him because that’s what he likes. I was just trying to poke him a little bit and see if I could get him to implode a little bit.” Paine recalled.
Despite Paine’s attempts to unsettle Kohli, the Indian star went on to score a century in the Perth Test. However, Paine maintained that his approach was still valid. He believed that even if Kohli continued to score runs, the act of sledging could still have a psychological impact and potentially lead to a lapse in concentration.
