Faf du Plessis is right: Australia would be stupid to sledge Virat Kohli

The South African Captain Faf du Plessis is quite right in his assessment of Virat Kohli that he is the kind of player who would thrive, and not disintegrate, when confronted.

For long, the Australian team has been a master of strategic sledging to disintegrate the opposition players. They have succeeded in their effort to psyche out players of the pedigree of Jonathan Trott and Marcus Trescothick. Even someone as confrontational as Stuart Broad has faced difficulty in coping with the sledging from the Australian players, as well as the crowd.

When an opposition team visits the Australian shore, it’s not just their cricketing skills that would be tested, but also their mental fortitude on the face of constant, planned and dare I say, skilful sledging by the Australian team, not to forget the usual jeering from the home crowd.

However, as du Plessis rightly pointed out, there are a few rare players who actually ‘welcome’ such confrontation from the opposition team. In the past, Steve Waugh, the most Australian of Australians, was seen to provoke opposition to be confrontational while he was batting. That would get him going.

The Indian Captain Virat Kohli is very much like Waugh in that sense. He loves it when there is a fight. And he loves it even more when the fight is not just of skills, but also of temperament. The more you sledge him, the more wrath you invite from the Delhi-ite.

Du Plessis admitted that they deliberately chose to give Kohli ‘silent treatment’ during India’s South Africa sojourn. Even though Kohli still managed to score nearly three hundred runs in the three-match series, he feels it could have been much worse, had they resorted to confrontational behaviour.

Maybe he is right. A confrontational England got the best out of Kohli, and he scored almost six hundred runs in the five-match series in the 2018 England series.

The upcoming Australian tour presents a golden opportunity for Team India to register its first ever Test series victory there. Virat Kohli’s contributions, both as the captain and batsman, would be crucial to India’s fortunes. It may sound a bit churlish, but as an Indian fan, one would love the Australians to be stupid enough to sledge the Indian Captain!