'He took his team with him...' - Mitchell Johnson reminiscences about heated moments with Virat Kohli during BGT 2014-15

Mitchell Johnson was one of the best pacers Australia ever had. In his prime form, he was an absolute beast who wouldn't let the batters settle down at all. During the Boxing Day Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15, Johnson sledged the Indian batter Virat Kohli, and the banter turned into something ugly. Kohli, the aggressive young lad, allowed the bat to speak for him as he went on to hit a century (169) later in the game. 

The incident is set in the core memory of the former pace bowler who described the game, the innings and Kohli's passion related to the game. In his recent column for the West Australian, Johnson wrote about the banter with Kohli and how the matter escalated. 

"One of Kohli’s attributes stood out early to me above all others – he was up for the fight. That kind of aggressive attitude was something we had rarely seen from an Indian player at that point. We were used to giving it but didn’t always get it back in return. He took his team with him as well so it’s not an understatement to say that Kohli changed the face of Indian cricket, taking a new generation of players and showing them how to play tough cricket," Mitchell Johnson wrote in a column for The West Australian.

Johnson was kind enough to keep the rivalry aside and acknowledged the fact that Kohli transformed the red-ball cricket for India and took the team to new heights. He probably set different standards for the other captains, which may or may not be attained in the future. 

One of the best players in the world playing me with so much time: Mitchell Johnson

Ten years down the line, Mitchell Johnson still thinks about the innings Kohli played during the Boxing Day Test match in 2014. Johnson described Kohli as one of the best players he has played against and said that the innings of 169 was something he would always remember. He opened up about the fact that he was trying to run Kohli out but failed miserably, and then Kohli channelled all his energy into scoring the runs. 

"I was legitimately trying to run him out but he didn’t like what I did. He made some comments in the media that night about having no respect for me as a player, which annoyed me. We got him off guard early and had him playing at a ball he didn’t need to in frustration and unfortunately we dropped him on not many. He then focussed and harnessed his energy and piled on the runs – all 169 of them. also remember the cover drives, the pull shots and the urgency of his running between wickets. One of the best players in the world playing me with so much time, I think I even said ‘good shot’ in my head a few times after being driven down the ground," he added.