Virat Kohli Is Australia's No 1 Enemy But Dare Not Sledge Him, Michael Hussey Warns Steven Smith And Co.

'Sledging Virat Kohli can hurt you,' that's Michael Hussey's message loud and clear to the Australian cricket team ahead of its four-Test tour of India.

With each passing day, the list of advice that Steven Smith and Co. are getting for their trip to India is increasing and Mr Cricket has warned them not to fire up India's in-form captain.

BCCL

Hussey, who has averaged more on Asian soil than any other Aussie batsman to have played five Tests or more in those foreign conditions, said riling Kohli may backfire on the Australians and they should instead focus on a plan to dismiss him cheaply during the series starting February 23.

"From an Australian point of view, Kohli is public enemy No.1 and we have to get him out cheaply. I wouldn't try and fire him (Kohli) up. I think he thrives on that and he's a real competitor. He loves being in the fight and loves the contest out in the middle," Hussey was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

"I'd make sure we have some very clear plans and we try and stick to them as best as we possibly can. There's no need to get involved in that sort of verbal barrage because I think that fires him up even more. You don't want to get carried away with too much talk and lose your concentration of what's important, which is executing your skills," said Hussey, who retired in 2013 after scoring 6235 runs from 79 Tests.

BCCL

He said the result of the series will not be decided by which team is more verbal but on the basis of better execution of plans with more consistency.

"The team that wins will be the one that can execute their skills at the highest quality and for the longest period of time. It's not going to be the team that's the most verbal or the most aggressive," said the 41-year-old who has played for IPL side Chennai Super Kings.

Kohli has been a target of sledging by Australia in the past and it indeed got the best out of the Indian run-machine. Ever since Kohli, a brash, temperamental Kohli at the time, showed the middle finger to the Aussie crowd on the tour of 2011-12, he became a subject of sledging by the Australian players. Kohli showed that he won't take that lying down as he punched his first Test hundred on Aussie soil in Adelaide in 2012.

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Then Mitchell Johnson led the Australian riling of Kohli in 2014 during the 2014 Boxing Day Test. He responded with his then personal-best score of 169 in that drawn match.

Kohli had clashed with Smith during the opening Test of that series in Adelaide before taking on each other later again when the Indian captain took exception to the Australian skipper's role as an on-field commentator.

AP

Then in 2016 during the ODI series Down Under, James Faulkner tried to get under the skin of Kohli but the Delhi batsman hammered 117 runs in that game.

When Faulkner tried to sledge, Kohli said told him "You're wasting your energy. There's no point. I've smashed you enough in my life. Just go and bowl."

Surely, the Australians by now have learnt their lesson the hard way. This time it is going to be even more tough as Kohli is full time captain and a leader of a hungry Indian team.