‘I’m so sorry, please don’t ban me’ - Virat Kohli after infamous middle finger saga during first Australia tour

Star India batter Virat Kohli toured Australia for the first time in 2012. Playing in Down Under is never an easy task, especially when the crowd and media are always in the mood to attack a cricketer verbally. Kohli was no exception. Despite being young and travelling for the first time in Australia, the crowd showed no mercy as Kohli later revealed that they were speaking ill about his mother and sister.

The former India captain had enough of it and flicked his middle finger to silence the crowd. The media was quick to pick that up as the newspaper the next day published it on the front page. Kohli was eventually called in by the match official Ranjan Madugalle and during which, the cricketer pleaded to not ban him and stated it was only banter.

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“Yeah, the one thing I remember most is when I'd had enough of the Australian crowd at Sydney and I just decided to flick a finger at them. 'I'm so cool'. The match referee called me to his room the next day and I'm like, ‘What's wrong?'. He said, ‘What happened at the boundary yesterday?'. I said, ‘Nothing, it was a bit of banter'," Virat had said during an interview with the Wisden.

“Then he threw the newspaper in front of me and there was this big image of me flicking on the front page and I said, ‘I'm so sorry, please don't ban me,” he added.

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The last time Kohli travelled to Australia, India were all-out for 36 runs in Adelaide. He had to leave the team after the first Test of the series due to the birth of his first child but India managed to clinch the series 2-1. The 35-year-old is set to return to Australia later in the year for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and the focus will once again be on him. His relationship with Australia is slightly different now, but one thing remained the same and that is his hunger to dominate red-ball cricket.