Former Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson and Indian batting heartthrob Virat Kohli share a turbulent past indeed. The duo were involved in an ugly exchange at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) during the Boxing Day Test of 2014, which ended in a draw thanks to a superlative knock of 169 from Kohli. The war of words then went on to escalate as the two didn’t miss an opportunity to have a go at each other at the post match press conference.
A little over two years later from that incident, it seems things have cooled off as Johnson has been in complete awe of Kohli.
Kohli, who has been in top notch form off late, with four double-centuries as many series’, was praised highly by the former pacer, who called the Indian captain as “mature”.
“Now Virat has been extremely mature. He has been more calm and quite while batting,” said Johnson.
“Now I see he does not look ecstatic even after scoring a century. His maturity has guided to reach the highest level of the game,” the fiery pacer, who is a part of the upcoming IPL Players Auction pointed out.
“He is amazingly superb in all three formats of the game nowadays. I am also astonished to have watched the regality in his batting against both the spinners as well as against the fast bowlers also,” Johnson added, about Kohli’s rich vein of form against all sorts of bowling.
“I hope our bowlers have had an intense preparation on and off the pitch about how to find out weakness of Kohli. They must have to do it during the Test series also. Otherwise Kohli will be as destructive as he has been against our bowlers also,” he concluded.