Australia will always remember Virat Kohli as a batting great, albeit a cricketer whose form continued to disintegrate on what was almost certainly his final tour Down Under as a Test cricketer.
But the megastar Indian will best be remembered by Australia in a similar fashion to sporting greats such as Gary Hall junior, Novak Djokovic and Stuart Broad: for all the brilliance Kohli has conjured, he is first and foremost a villain.
Thirteen years after a 23-year-old Kohli gave a heckling SCG crowd a middle finger on his first tour of Australia, a 36-year-old Kohli delivered another “up yours” by digging up the dirt that was Sandpapergate.
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In the moments that followed Steve Smith’s final-day departure in this year’s SCG Test, India’s quasi-captain for the latter stages of the match — he had stepped up for the injured Jasprit Bumrah — turned to a section of the crowd and gestured to reveal that no sandpaper was hiding in his pockets or crotch.
The inflammatory actions, branded “pathetic whataboutism” by cricket scribe Daniel Brettig in The Age, showed no respect for a man who had fallen one run short of joining the exclusive 10,000 club at his home ground, and who had twice in the Sydney Test perished in the 9990s.
Virat Kohli flips off at a heckling SCG crowd during the Sydney Test of 2012. Getty
Not for the first time on Australian shores, Kohli was suddenly the subject of a chastising chant.
“Kohli’s a wanker!” yelled rowdy spectators on repeat.
On day one of the Border-Gavaskar finale, Kohli had riled Australia’s cricket team and fans by making a beeline for non-striker Sam Konstas and screaming in the 19-year-old’s face, hounding the chirpy youngster after the fall of Usman Khawaja.
Australian coach Andrew McDonald argued that India’s reaction, which saw a swarm of frenzied Indian players mob Konstas, was “intimidating”, but the International Cricket Council (ICC) took no action.
On the first morning of the previous Test, the combustible Kohli had exploded as Konstas flayed the Indian attack in Melbourne.
MCG crowds spanning more than a century have witnessed thousands of walk-by shoulder bumps, but few in the sport of cricket, and the ICC docked Kohli 20 per cent of his match fee for bringing AFL niggle to the “gentlemen’s game”.
Granted, there was less aversion and more adoration as Kohli trudged back to the pavilion with bat in hand on day two of the Sydney Test, departing to a standing ovation, for Australian sports fans can detest character but in the same breath appreciate greatness.
Kohli has crafted some of his finest Test knocks in Australia, including the Adelaide Oval innings of 116 in 2011-12 in which he posted his first of 30 Test centuries.
The insatiable right-hander again dominated in Adelaide in the 2014-15 summer, plundering a century in his first dig and another in his second.
Across five Test tours of Australia and 18 Test matches Down Under in all, he’s amassed 1542 runs at an average of 46.72, including seven centuries: three in Adelaide, two in Perth, one in Melbourne and another in Sydney.
There were fears after Kohli’s unbeaten century in Perth in November that Pat Cummins’ men had played the struggling superstar back into form, but his weakness outside off and the Australians’ resounding success in exposing it, particularly via the relentlessness of Scott Boland, stifled his threat.
Virat Kohli celebrates scoring his second of two centuries during the 2014 Adelaide Test. Getty
Kohli has amassed 9230 runs at 46.85 from 123 Tests.
His one-day international record — 13,906 runs at 58.18, including 50 centuries — makes him arguably the greatest ODI batter of all time.
He’s racked up 1327 of those runs at 51.03 in Australia, including five centuries.
Virat Kohli gestures to the MCG crowd during the 2024 Boxing Day Test. Getty
Australia remembers the magnificence of former US swimming superstar Gary Hall junior, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, but best remembers the American for his infamous “smashing guitars” sledge.
Perhaps there’s even more contempt for Broad and more again for Djokovic.
Kohli, both revered and resented, will be remembered by Australia in much the same way.
