‘Isko Main Itna Maarunga… How Could he Hit Me on Head’: Kohli Recalls Fierce Rivalry with Mitchell Johnson During 2014 Australia Tour

Former team India skipper Virat Kohli is one of the finest batters of the generation and famously a fiery character. The 35-year-old has scaled many milestones in his long illustrious journey in the sport with certain knocks remaining memorable years after they came to pass.

One such tour was India’s four-match Test series down under against Australia, which India lost 2-0, but Kohli’s performance in the series stood out as he notched up four tons in the series.

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A recent video of Kohli discussing the Australia tour has been doing the rounds as the star batter revealed an anecdote from the series in which he took Mitchell Johnson for runs all around the park.

” During the first match of the tour, the very first ball of Johnson hit me on the head,” he recollected.

“Back then at first, it was complete disbelief,” the star batter said.

“For 60 days I had been visualising that I’d play like this and that, but there was a complete change of plans after that blow,” Kohli continued.

“It was a heavy blow and my vision started dropping as my left eye started swelling, but I did not notice it back then,” the 35-year-old added.

“And what happened at lunch was that, these are the things I feel thankful for, there were basically two options, fight or flight,” he explained.

“And my reaction was obviously one that went, how dare he hit me on the head? I’ll smack him around and that is what I did,” Kohli revealed.

Kohli managed to score a ton in each innings of the first game, 115 and 141, despite India’s 48-run loss in the opener of the series before producing an ordinary performance of not much noteworthy in the second game as India succumbed by 4 wickets.

Kohli returned to his touch in the third fixture as he registered scores of 189 and 54 in the two innings with the game ending in a draw, before closing out the you with yet another draw in which Kohli scored 147 and 46.