I've got no reason to respect Johnson: Kohli

Melbourne, December 28

After blasting a brilliant 169, Virat Kohli continued to fire missiles at the Australian team well after the close of play.

Kohli was dismissed by Mitchell Johnson but only after subjecting the paceman to his worst day in the field in years, smashing him to the fence on three consecutive balls in one over. Kohli later raised the stakes for the rest of the series, saying he respected only "some" of the hosts' players, and that there was no reason for him to respect Johnson.

Kohli was particularly angry when Johnson, fielding on his follow-through, threw the ball back towards the stumps in an attempt to run Kohli out. The ball hit Kohli as he scampered back into the crease. He thought Johnson hit him deliberately, which led to an argument between the two, and it was ended by the umpires.

"I was really annoyed with him hitting me with the ball, and I told him that's not on," Kohli said. "'Try and hit the stumps next time, not my body'.”

“You have got to send the right message across. I am not there to take to some unnecessary words or chats from someone,” he added. “I am going there to play cricket, back myself. There's no good reason that I should respect unnecessarily some people when they are not respecting me.”

Kohli said he had respect for some of the Australians, but Johnson wasn't one of them. "I respect quite a few of them, but someone who doesn't respect me, I have no reason to respect him," Kohli said. "There were words in Adelaide as well where they said, 'No unnecessary respect for him (Kohli)'. I said, 'I don't need it. I am out here to play cricket, not to hear anyone's respect. As long as I am scoring runs, I am happy with it. If you like it, good. If you don't, I am not bothered'.”

“I don't really need to care about what they think as far as respecting me or me respecting them is concerned. I have got a nice friendship with a few of them,” Kohli went on. “Friendly chats, but someone who is not backing off, someone who is saying anything that comes to mouth, I have no reason to respect him.”

Kohli said the “chat” from the Australians was on through the day. “It was going on throughout the day," Kohli said. "They were calling me a spoilt brat, and I said, 'Maybe that's the way I am. You guys hate me, and I like that'. I don't mind having a chat on the field, and it worked in my favour, I guess. I like playing against Australia because it is very hard for them to stay calm, and I don't mind an argument on the field. And it really excites me and brings the best out of me. So they don't seem to be learning the lesson.”

Kohli said that the Australians were so chatty only because they are up in the series. "Good for them," Kohli said when told of Australian captain Steven Smith's comments about the Indian team’s internal troubles before the match. "Some words coming out of their mouth. They have the right to talk I guess. They are two-nil up right now. Would have been interesting if it had been 1-1, and the same sort of sentences or words had come through from them.”

"It is funny. When you are on top you can sort of say anything you want. It's when the chips are down that you have got to stand up. Say what you have to say and then go out there and prove it,” he went on. “When we played in India there weren't so many words coming back from them. Which was surprising. We are two-nil down, we still took them on today, and showed what we can do with the bat, which is the character of this Indian team.” — Agencies