Felt like a punching bag after Virat Kohli's aggressive celebrations, reveals Justin Langer

India, led by Kohli, enjoyed an unprecedented summer Down Under in 2018/19, winning the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2-1, its first-ever Test series win on Australian soil. It was followed by a 2-1 victory in the ODIs, while the T20 series ended in a 1-1 draw. Australian coach Justin Langer, in the newly-released 'The Test' documentary on Amazon Prime, revealed that he felt like a “punching bag” after Virat Kohli’s aggressive celebrations during India’s 2018-19 tour.

Australia, who were desperate to restore faith among fans after the sandpaper gate in Cape Town in April 2018, were playing their first big-ticket Test series on home soil without Steve Smith and David Warner - both were banned by Cricket Australia for a year for their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal. Langer and new Australia Test captain Tim Paine had decided not to engage with Virat Kohli during the four-match series, fearing that might charge him up more.

 “I remember that afternoon like a punching bag. We can’t fight back because it felt like we had our hands behind our backs and we just had to take it,” said Langer in a recently released docu-series The Test, reported Sportstar.

Langer additionally spoke of the 'double requirements' about sparring in cricket. Langer, who grew to become the coach of the Australian workforce after the resignation of Darren Lehman, had requested his gamers to tackle Kohli throughout the collection and warned them to not cross the sledging restrict. The Aussie coach asked his players to ruffle Kohli up but warned the hosts not to cross the line between banter and abuse. 

“You must be feeling the double standards the way their captain is carrying on and we sort of have to be careful. Imagine if we behaved two out of ten that. There is a difference between abuse and banter. There is no room for abuse. We don’t need to abuse him but there is banter where you stick up for your mate," he added.