Exclusive: Tim Paine opens up on how sledging affects Virat Kohli the least

Every Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia starts with media hyping Virat Kohli and with questions about whether sledging would be the talk of the town by the end of it. In 2014, when India travelled Down Under, Kohli was the center point of all the discussions before the four-match series, and his every move was closely observed by the media. He was criticized for being flamboyant while the players left no stone unturned to sledge the Indian cricketer.

It didn’t bother Kohli at all, who was 25 at that time. Even when the team was struggling, Kohli proved his worth with the bat, hitting 692 runs - second-most in the series. He wasn’t getting down against the Aussies on their home turf and also took on the media from time to time. All the sledging from the Australian players made him stronger as it brought out the best of Kohli.

Since that series, Australians have been reluctant to sledge Kohli or any other Indian player. Ahead of the upcoming edition of the high-profile series, Paine, who is now a pundit, noted that sledging didn’t matter to Kohli as he always managed to score runs. The 39-year-old also added that when he was the keeper, he tried to distract the cricketer and it used to annoy him when former cricketers advised Australian players not to sledge Kohli.

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“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. 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 told CricTracker.

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Ahead of the 2018 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Michael Clarke advised the hosts not to sledge Kohli and even at that time, Paine pointed out his team didn't want to provoke the India captain unnecessarily. After the series, he opined that the Australian players were not soft on India while former cricketer Virender Sehwag noted that the hosts were soft on the visitors, given the IPL contracts of some players.