Former Australia opener and current Italy captain Joe Burns recalled an incident from the 2014 Melbourne Test when he was rebuked by India’s Virat Kohli when he was fielding at short leg.

Burns described how Kohli, who was captaining India for the first time in Test matches after MS Dhoni's mid-series retirement, shut him down quickly and forcefully after he batted a single line of sledging during the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

Burns chose to join in when teammates Brad Haddin and Shane Watson chirped from behind the stumps, encouraging Kohli, who was already well-set and headed for yet another century.

“I’m fairly certain Virat scored 100 that day. There was a little bit of chirp going on. Not sledging, just obviously we got Hadzi behind the stumps and Watto 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 said to him, ‘Virat, you have to play some shots,” Burns told Crictracker.

Kohli only needed to do that to increase the ante. After halting bowler Nathan Lyon on his mark, the captain of India at the time went to Burns and delivered a scathing reply.

“He stopped the bowler, stopped Nathan Lyon, turned to me, and said, ‘You don’t talk, rookie.’ Next ball he faced up and smacked it through covers. It was very embarrassing for me. I didn’t say a word the next four days after that.

That showed me that Virat was not someone to mess with. As a 24-year-old debutant at bat-pad, I wasn’t really the person or in the place to be saying anything to Virat at that point,” Burns said with a laugh.

The 2014–15 series in Australia signaled a dramatic change in Indian cricket. Following the third Test in Melbourne, MS Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket, and Kohli assumed captaincy for the final Test in Sydney. In four Test matches, Kohli amassed 692 runs, including four hundreds.

“Virat Kohli doesn’t take a backward step. He really shaped that team’s identity. I think even now that he’s not in the team, you can see the way India plays is still built on the foundations that Virat put in place over a number of years.

I tried not to look at him on the field. I didn’t want to engage with him because I knew that really spurred him on. And you factor in the fact that he’s a world-class batter, one of the greatest of all time. It’s a great combination,” Burns concluded.

Virat Kohli called time on his Test career after 123 tests, scoring 9230 runs with 30 centuries to his name. He captained India in 68 Tests, winning 40 of them, including the first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018-19.