Batting superstar Virat Kohli admitted that the aggressive Australian cricketing environment tested his resilience but felt that standing up to it while playing a bold brand of cricket toughened his mind and shaped his career path, besides influencing his growth as an individual.

Kohli first toured Down Under in 2011 and faced a hostile reception from the Australian crowd, but he reckoned that the aggression gradually transformed into respect.

“Growing up, watching cricket as a kid when we used wake up early and watch Test cricket in Australia, you can see the ball flying of the pitch and the opposition in your face, and I used to feel, Wow, if I will able to step up in these conditions and against this opposition that’s something I could be proud of as a cricketer. That’s the motivation for me watching all the greats of our game from either side. Guys like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, even Virender Sehwag, guys, whom I really looked up to,” Kohli told Fox Cricket ahead of the first ODI in Perth on Sunday (October 19, 2025).

“Even the Australian setup, how they played their cricket and how they were in your face all the time, intimidating and taking the game on, that was something that really inspired me to come here and do the same. Early on, I found it was easier to watch on television than be part of that hostile environment, but I am really grateful to all those times because that shaped me as a cricketer and as a person as well.”

“That really tests your mental strength and resilience because once you start copping it from the crowd you can’t escape, you got to come back everyday,” added Kohli, who got out for a naught in his return to India colours after seven months.

Kohli remembered the chats he had with former England skipper Kevin Pietersen with whom he shared dressing room with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL, helped him prepare for Australian brand of cricket.

“I didn’t understand it initially to be honest. But guys like Keven Pietersen who copped it before told me something about Australia that you feel like they are at you the whole time but at the back of their minds and hearts they really appreciate that you are standing up and playing that kind of cricket,” Kohli said.

“So, don’t take it personally, don’t take it to heart. You just go out there and play competitive cricket. You will realise how good you are as a cricketer, and you will realise over a long period of time how it really shapes up and makes up mentally as a player. I have nothing but gratitude for those experiences as a player. The crowd being at me really brought out the best from me.”

Kohli said under those trying circumstances, he had little option other than giving his “120%.”

“I had no option but to be 120 per cent. There was no chance I wasn’t gonna perform in this country, in these hostile conditions. So I really had good times here as a cricketer. Off the field, honestly, people have been so relaxed and so respectful. When I haven’t been competing, and you walk on the street and they see you, you can see that genuine smile on their face. So, I really enjoyed my time here.”

Kohli, who has retired from T20 and Test cricket and just plays ODIs now, said Australia has been a happy touring place for him.

“It is always lovely to be back in Australia, a place where I have really enjoyed my cricket. Played some hard fought cricket over so many years, so many battles, eventually what I have realised through the course of the whole journey was if you play your cricket competitively and hard enough and even if you are in the face of the opposition, you gain their respect after a certain point of time. That’s the experience of coming here and playing in this country.”

“I had some good memories at this stadium. In general I love coming to Perth, a really nice place, really relaxed, something that I really enjoy. Beautiful wickets to bat, the pace and bounce which I always enjoy,” he said.

Kohli, who is returning to cricket after five months since playing the IPL 2025, said he is really enjoying his time with his family after retiring from Tests and T20Is.

“It’s been a long time off for me since I retired from Test cricket. I was just catching up on life. I haven’t been able to do anything, I don’t know for how many years, just been able to spend some quality time with kids, with family at home. It’s been a beautiful phase and something that I really enjoyed.”

“To be honest, the amount of cricket I have played over the last 15-20 years, I have actually not rested at all. I have probably played the most number of games in international cricket combining the IPL together. So for me it was a very refreshing time off,” he said.

Kohli said he has prepared well for the ODIs against Australia.

“I am feeling as fit if not fitter than I have ever been before and you can feel the freshness when you can play the game and mentally you know what to do out there. It’s just the physical preparation that really needs to be taken care of. At this stage I realised if my body is fit and my reflexes are there.”

Published – October 19, 2025 12:19 pm IST

Senior India batter Rohit Sharma on Saturday (January 4, 2025) firmly dismissed his retirement rumours, saying he is “not going anywhere” and offered poor form as the reason for him “standing down” from the ongoing Sydney Test against Australia.

Grappling with modest form, Rohit “opted to rest” from the Sydney Test, handing over the leadership duties to Jasprit Bumrah, sparking widespread speculations about his future.

“I have not retired. I stood down, that is what I would say. Basically the chat that I had with the coach and the selector was very simple. I am not able to score runs, there is no form, it is an important match and we need a player with form,” Rohit told Star Sports.

“As it is, in our batting, the form of the boys is not that good. So you cannot carry a lot of out of form players in the team. This simple thing was going on in my mind. I am not going anywhere,” he added.

The 37-year-old said the team management and selectors backed his decision.

“I wanted to tell the coach and the selector that this is what is going on in my mind. They backed my decision. They said that you have been playing for so many years. You know what you are doing.

“So for me, it was difficult to take this decision. But if everything is kept in front, then this decision was sensible. I will not think much further,” he added.

In Rohit’s absence, Shubman Gill was included in the India eleven for the crucial fifth match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as India is trailing 1-2.

The Mumbaikar endured a tough time in Test cricket in 2024, accumulating just 619 runs in 26 innings across 14 matches averaging 24.76.

Before standing down, he had scored just 31 runs across five innings in three Tests in this series after joining the team following the Perth Test.

Rohit’s bold call triggered speculations that he might pull the plug on his Test career after this series.

“This is not a retirement decision. I am not going to leave the game. There is no such decision. But I am out of this game because the bat is not working.

“But there is no guarantee that the bat will not work after 5 months. There is no guarantee that the bat will not work after two months or six months down the line,” Rohit said.

He hoped for a turnaround in his fortunes sooner than later.

“We have seen a lot in cricket. Every minute, every second, every day life changes. So, I have a belief that things will change.

“But, at the same time, I have to be realistic as well. So, if a person has a mic inside, or a laptop, or a pen, what he writes, what he says, it does not change our life. We have played this game for so many years.

“So, these people cannot decide when we should go or when we should not play. I am a sensible man. I am a mature man. I am the father of two children. So, I have a little brain to decide what I want in life,” he noted.

Asked if he took this decision after the Melbourne Test defeat, Rohit said: “No, I took this decision after coming to Sydney. Because after the match, we had only two days in between. And one day was New Year’s eve. So on New Year’s, I did not want to tell this to the coach and the selector.

“But it was running in my mind that I am trying and trying. But it is not happening. So I have to accept that it is not happening. And it was important for me to step aside.

“Whenever I am captaining, I don’t believe in what is going to happen after 5 months or 6 months. What do you want in the immediate future, it is important to focus on this thing.

“Our entire focus was on these 5 matches. We had to retain the trophy, we had to win. So, when we take such decisions, we do it keeping the team in front of us,” he added.

Rohit also heaped praise on Bumrah saying he has been impressed by the latter’s leadership qualities.

“The way he (Bumrah) sets standards with the ball, he is absolute class. When I saw him for the first time in 2013, his graph has gone really high ever since and has gone from strength to strength,” he said.

Sunil Gavaskar on Monday (December 30, 2024) lashed out at senior players such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for letting the team down and blamed the Indian top-order for losing the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar on Monday (December 30, 2024) lashed out at senior players such as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for letting the team down and blamed the Indian top-order for losing the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne.

Set a target of 340 on the final day of the fourth Test, the Indian batters, except Yashasvi Jaiswal (84), faltered yet again to lose the match by 184 runs and trail 1-2 in the five-match series.

“It all depends on the selectors. The contributions that were expected have not come. It is the top-order which has to contribute, if the top-order is not contributing, why blame the lower-order.”

“The seniors have not really made the contribution that they should have, all that they had to do was bat out today and live to fight another day in Sydney,” Gavaskar told India Today.

“…it’s just that the top-order didn’t contribute and that is the reason India found itself in this position.”

While Gavaskar praised Jaiswal for his gritty knock, the batting great once again was not impressed by Rishabh Pant’s shot selection, which opened the floodgates for Australia.

Joining hands at 33 for 3, Jaiswal and Pant looked to have settled down, taking India to 121 in the post-lunch session, before a rash shot from Pant set the team back.

“Yes, absolutely around tea time when Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal had batted through the post-lunch session, it certainly looked India could achieve a draw because it was a matter of batting for another hour really without losing a wicket, and Australia would have then given up,” Gavaskar said.

“The whole idea was try and take into the mandatory overs and if around the mandatory overs India had just lost maybe four wickets then Australia, after a couple off overs, would have asked to shake hands but that didn’t happen.”

As Pant got a long hop from Travis Head after a 103-ball vigil, during which he shared 84 runs for the fourth wicket with Jaiswal, he hit it straight to Mitchell Marsh at in the deep in search of a six.

“…the issue is you know there is this shot called sixer in cricket and which is like a drug. Once you hit a couple of sixes, then you think that’s a real a high because once you hit the ball cleanly of the middle of the bat and it goes into the stands, there is no better feeling for a batter. Sixer is a different feeling and it’s a drug, it gets into your system,” Gavaskar said.

“The difference between a boundary and a six is just two runs but the risk percentage is 100 per cent. Boundary is hit along the ground no risk at all, a six is attempted with the ball up in the air and if you don’t time it, if it hits the toe of your bat, it can go up and you can be out caught.”

“At that particular point of time there was no need to go for a six, it was not going to win us the match. There was a long on there, there was a deep square leg there, so if a pull shot along the ground would have been attempted it would have got you four runs, and that is how it opened the door for Australia.”

Gavaskar also criticised the TV umpire for ignoring technology and giving Jaiswal out caught-behind controversially off the bowling of Pat Cummins.

“That is not how it should be because in Perth you had a dismissal of KL Rahul where you didn’t go by the visual evidence, you went by technology. You can’t be saying technology one day and visual evidence the next day.”

“Visual evidence, if you ask me, was not so much to make a difference for you to overturn,” the former India captain said.

“I always believed that it has got to be overwhelming evidence to overturn an umpire’s call in the middle. I don’t think there was overwhelming evidence because the fact of the matter is there is an element of optical illusion with the ball.”

“The ball sometimes moves a little bit later after it has gone past the bat, it looks as if it’s an edge and then you realise it’s not an edge, so that is the reason why you have a Snickometer, if you have it go by it. I just failed to understand why the TV umpire gave that out.”

Gavaskar had word of advice for Kohli, who continues to struggle with deliveries outside the off-stump.

“The foot is not going to the pitch of the ball, the foot is going straight down the pitch, not towards the ball. If the foot goes more towards the ball, you have more chances of hitting the ball from the middle.”

“Because the foot is not moving you end up reaching for the ball and that is what has been happening,” he observed.

The fifth and final Test of the series will be played in Sydney from January 3.

India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal gestures as he leaves the field after losing his wicket on the third day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP

Yashasvi Jaiswal speaks like the way he bats. There is an eagerness to respond quickly and move ahead. Often he nods his head while waiting for a question to conclude and then he replies in a direct manner. The centurion met the media at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday (November 24, 2024) evening and there was an air of quiet confidence about him.

The opener’s 161 set India on a strong platform in the first Test and Jaiswal was happy with his effort: “For me, all the centuries are amazing, but this will be special because I really wanted to do it. I always wanted to come to Australia and do well here. We all knew that the ball will bounce here and I prepared for it.”

Jaiswal was thrilled about batting in tandem with Virat Kohli and said: “Today, I was playing and running with him. It was a very special moment. I try to develop my own game by talking to senior players and by understanding how I can add certain things to my game. I still have a lot to learn.”

He was clear about his mindset too: “I am going to go and enjoy and be fearless. I will go and take a brave decision. I will try and do what is required for my team. It is amazing to play against such great bowlers.”

Asked about the six that got him his hundred, Jaiswal said: “I knew he (Josh Hazlewood) was going to bowl a bouncer and I was ready for that ball. Luckily, he did and I played that shot and I enjoyed it.”