‘You Don’t Talk Rookie’: How Kohli Roasted Italy’s T20 Captain Back In 2014

Virat Kohli doesn’t shy away from walking the talk, and more certainly doesn’t shy away from a battle. In the 2014/15 series against Australia, Kohli batted like a man possessed, smashing 692 runs, including four centuries and a half-century. 

Joe Burns, who made his debut in the 2014 series, revealed how his ‘sledge’ ended up shutting him for four straight days as Kohli smashed the Australian bowlers. In that match at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Kohli scored 169 and 54 in the two innings, as India held on to a draw. 

“In my first game, first Test match at the MCG on Boxing Day, I was 24. And first game, I was fielding at bat-pad (close to the batter). And I’m fairly certain, Virat scored 100 that day. But there was a little bit of chirp going on. Not sledging, just obviously we got Hadzi (Brad Haddin) behind the stumps, and Watto (Shane Watson) was at first slip. Nathan Lyon was bowling, so I’m in close. I think it’d been four hours. I hadn’t said a word. I think I said one line. I think I said to him, ‘Virat, you got to play some shots,'” Burns told CricTracker.

“He stopped the bowler, stopped Nathan Lyon, turned to me and said, ‘You don’t talk, rookie’. Next ball he faced up, smacked it through covers. It was very embarrassing for me. I didn’t say a word the next four days after that, but it showed me that Virat was not someone to mess with. And I think as a 24-year-old débutant at bat-pad, it wasn’t really the person or in the place to be saying anything to Virat at that point.”

During the same series, Kohli was handed captaincy after MS Dhoni retired from the format altogether ahead of the Adelaide Test. In his Test captaincy debut, Kohli didn’t shy away from responsibility, as he smashed twin centuries, almost taking India home in a 364-run chase in Adelaide. 

Burns revealed how that set a precedent for the Indian generations to follow, and shaped the identity of future Indian teams. 

“Virat Kohli doesn’t take a backward step. As I said before, he really shaped that team’s identity. I think even now that he’s not in the team, you can see that the way that India play, it’s really shaped on, the foundations that Virat put in place over a number of years. He’s always a really fierce competitor. I tried not to look at him on the field,” said Burns.

“I didn’t want to engage with him because I knew that that really spurred him on. And I guess you factor in the fact that he’s a world-class batter, one of the greatest of all time. It’s a great combination. And like I said, it really set the identity for the Indian cricket team.”

Burns now captains the Italy national team, and more famously led the Azzurri to their first-ever World Cup appearance, after securing a spot in the 2026 T20 World Cup.