Australia to keep testing Kohli's composure

Australia will keep baiting Virat Kohli at the SCG after being convinced they managed to distract him from the task at hand midway through his commanding 169 in India's first innings of the Boxing Day Test.

The coach Darren Lehmann had quipped "oh no, we haven't even started yet" when asked whether his team had aided Kohli by giving him verbal ammunition to perform in Melbourne. Mitchell Johnson confirmed the team's view that there was much to gain from the tactic, even though Kohli has actively gone looking for confrontation at times during the series.

"He's an interesting character and he really does like to get involved in it all," Johnson said. "But I think you can get him to a point where the emotions do come in and that's where you do want to get him to and that's where the mind games come in so that's why I think it's all harmless.

"Firstly, we're playing them on skill and that's part of it, to try and get into his mind a little bit as well. We saw after I threw the ball at the stumps and he happened to be in the way of the stumps he didn't really like that too much. No one does like having a ball thrown at them. I apologised and moved on.

"I thought we'd moved on and he started to play a few rash shots after that so we saw him losing his cool a little bit then and then a few more words in the middle and then back to it. We saw an opportunity there and we'll see how he goes as captain now."

Johnson said that the verbal jousts in this series have been somewhat overblown by pundits, noting that no ICC fines were issued for events in Melbourne. This contrasted with Adelaide where instances of squabbling were recognised with fines.

"There's a lot of talk out in the media at the moment on bad sledging and pretty full on stuff but it's all pretty harmless," Johnson said. "Virat's just been telling us how many runs he's scored and we've just been saying we're two-nil up in the series so that's pretty much it. It's always been part of the game and always will be.

"Davey Warner got fired up with a bit of a send off [in Adelaide] and it got a bit too in-your-face sort of stuff. When there's people touching each other and that, that's crossing the line. I learnt my lesson at the WACA a few years ago, myself and Brad Haddin, you can't put your hand on a player and I found out the hard way I guess so it's all pretty harmless and we've got to beat them on skill and we have."

Kohli has not been shy to remind Australia's players of the 4-0 hiding they suffered in India, a reprise of the threats sent their way during the 2011-12 series along the lines of "wait until we play you at home", but Johnson was unfazed.

"Virat has mentioned that a couple of times," Johnson said. "He's mentioned his scores, mentioned the 4-0, even the Swami Army (an India fan group) have mentioned it as well. Keeps getting rubbed in a little bit but we just move on, we play each game and we try and win each game we play so we're not too worried about it.

"I think he'll be the same [as captain]. I think that's how he likes to play and he wants his guys to play that way as well. So it could be quite interesting because they're not known for that aggressive type of play but ever since I've seen him play cricket, I've always seen him pretty fiery. So he'll definitely be an aggressive type of captain I think the way he sets fields and I think you'll see a lot different to what MS (Dhoni) did."

Whatever the plans for engaging Kohli verbally, the bowling approach will share a lot with that taken against Kevin Pietersen, namely "be boring". Peter Siddle, unaccustomed to being an observer from the boundary, reckoned consistent, dry bowling would extract the sorts of indiscriminate strokes Australia are looking for.

"As you've seen the wickets that have offered up less he's scored runs on, whereas you look up in Brisbane where there was a bit of bounce and a bit of seam he struggled," Siddle said. "Obviously he's pretty accustomed to batting on the flatter, soft, slower wickets. Sydney might be a different story over the first few days so whoever it is we'll get stuck in and try and build pressure on him. We've had a lot of success against him in the past. Obviously he's in good nick and working hard but it will be another good contest here.

"I think it's pretty much the same for the most of the Indian batting line-up. They are a side that are aggressive, they like to feel bat on ball and they like to keep the runs ticking over. I think he's no different to a few of the others. It is about being boring. It's Test cricket. That's what makes it so fun - the patience, working a batsman over and then getting him out. That shows good commitment and no doubt we'll be looking forward to knocking Kohli over early, that'd be a good start."