Virat Kohli is not necessarily a subtle guy. He likes to express his emotions loud and clear so that there is no doubt about the fact that he is happy or displeased. Here, we make a list of moments when he got really angry on the field. We pick the top 7.
1. Back in 2012, when Kohli was still very new to the international scene, he showed the middle finger to the crowd in Sydney.
This was everywhere in the news, prompting Kohli to reveal that he did it because the crowd was making disrespectful comments. This is what he had to say about the incident, 6 years later in 2018.
The match referee [Ranjan Madugalle] called me to his room the next day and threw the newspaper in front of me. There was this big image of me flicking on the front page and I said, “I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me!”. I got away with that one. He was a nice guy, he understood I was young and these things happen.
2. Recently, he went and spoke into the stump mic during India’s match against South Africa. This happened after a controversial DRS decision that gave a second life to Dean Elgar.
But this isn’t it. He was heard sledging Elgar throughout the series. At one point, he told his counterpart, “Chirping for 13 years Dean, you think you gonna keep me quiet?”.
3. In the incident that possibly gained the most amount of momentum, he was caught on mic saying, “Shaam tak khelenge toh unki g*** phat jaayegi”.
This incident also happened when India was playing against South Africa.
4. In 2019, he did the “notebook gesture”, where he pretended to tick things off on an imaginary notebook.
This was to answer Kesrick Williams, who had been guilty of doing the same gesture when he dismissed Kohli earlier. In the post-match conference, Kohli said:
It’s not the CPL (about Williams’s celebration), it happened to me in Jamaica when he got me out. So I thought I’ll tick a few in the notebook as well, but all good. There were a few words, but smiles at the end. That’s what you want to see. Good competitive cricket but in the end shake hands and give a hi-fi. That’s what cricket is all about. Play it hard but have respect for opponents.
5. In 2018, Joe Root threw his bat on the ground, as if to suggest “mic drop” after scoring a century. In the same tour, Virat Kohli dismissed him with a straight throw and sent him back with a flying kiss.
Oh, he also dropped the mic.
6. In 2017, he asked Joe Root to stay silent by celebrating the Englishman’s wicket by keeping a finger on his lips.
Root had started it with this gesture, though, so can’t completely blame Kohli for it.
7. India was playing England in 2021 when Kohli’s ‘trumpet celebration’ became famous (or infamous, in some parts of the world).
There have been speculations as to why Kohli made that gesture, but no one knows it for sure.
Cricket is a game of emotions, and Kohli feels them very deeply.