THROWBACK: 'Please don’t ban me' - When Kohli recalled how match referee refrained from banning him

India's Test and ODI captain Virat Kohli remains a superstar in world cricket. The 33-year-old made a big name for himself in world cricket since early 2012 but was one of the star attractions even before his heydays. During MS Dhoni-led India's 2011/12 tour of Australia, Kohli was one of the few Indian players who was targetted consistently by the hostile Australian crowd.

During the second Test, in Sydney, the then youngster Kohli made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. He was being jeered by the Aussie crowd continuously and the Delhi-born cricketer finally decided to give them back as he showed his middle finger to the crowd, while fielding at the boundary line. While he settled scores with the crowd, it wasn't over for the right-hander as he was called upon by the match referee the following day.

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In an exclusive interview in the Wisden Cricket Monthly, in 2018, Kohli revealed how he pleaded with the match referee to not ban him following the infamous incident.

"The one thing I remember most is when I’d had enough of the Australian crowd at Sydney [in 2012] and I just decided to flick a [middle] finger at them. ‘I’m so cool’," he told Wisden Cricket Monthly. "The match referee [Ranjan Madugalle] 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’. 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!’. I got away with that one. He was a nice guy, he understood I was young and these things happen."

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Kohli moved past the infamous incident during the India-Australia Test series and made heads turn for the right reasons by the end of the four Tests Down Under. While his place was under threat due to low returns in the first two Tests and the altercation with the Aussie crowd, he turned it around emphatically with a fighting 72 in the third and penultimate Test, in Perth, before slamming his maiden Test ton in the final Test in Adelaide.

To date, Kohli has7,765 runs in 96 Tests at an average of 51.08 along with 27 hundreds. He is expected to lead Team India in the longest format once again during their forthcoming two-match Test series versus New Zealand at home, later this month.