Virat Kohli gets booed by Melbourne crowd as he walks out to bat

Indian captain Virat Kohli isn’t too lucky when he goes out to bat on foreign soil. In 2012, he had an ugly meeting with the crowd in a Test in Sydney when he showed it his middle finger. In August this year, Kohli was booed by the crowd in a Test match in Edgbaston against England following the controversial ‘mic drop’ incident. On Wednesday, too, history repeated itself when the Indian captain walked out to bat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after the tea break on Boxing Day.

In fact, the Indian captain was also made to wait in the middle as the Australian players took a while to resume action after the break. Despite the two sides taking oath time and again over not crossing the lines, instances of verbal exchanges have been witnessed during the ongoing Test series. Especially, that between the captains of the two sides – Kohli and Tim Paine – during the second Test in Perth came under intense scrutiny and criticism. Kohli faced a backlash, even from a few former India players, for his conduct on the field.

Kohli unbeaten on 47 at stumps

The Indian captain, however, remained not out on the Boxing Day on 47 in 107 balls and added 92 runs for the third wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara who was batting on 68. The show of the day was however stolen by Mayank Agarwal who scored 76 to register the highest score by an Indian batsman in the debut innings in Australia.

Agarwal was dismissed at the stroke of tea and Kohli came out after the interval. India’s chances of winning the crucial Test and taking an unassailable lead in the four-match series now rests with Kohli and the remaining Indian batsmen. To share a trivia: Kohli hit a magnificent 149 in Edgbaston where he was booed by the English crowd to undo whatever ordinary record he had in that country.

If Kohli goes on to score a hundred in this Test, he will better Sachin Tendulkar’s record of six tons on the Australian soil and also score the second successive Test ton at the MCG after his 169 in the 2014 series.

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