Kohli’s bye run stirs up bad blood

TENSIONS have again flared between Australian players and Virat Kohli after the Indian captain took a bye while Matthew Wade was down injured.

Wicketkeeper Wade appeared to hurt his arm after fumbling a Marcus Stoinis delivery during India’s second one-day international win in Kolkata on Thursday.

At the nonstriker’s end, Kohli took off on the quick run while Wade was hunched over.

It sparked Stoinis to confront Kohli at the end of the over and an angry response from Wade, who fumed at the batsman during the change of ends.

The run-in continues a long list of unsavoury incidents involving the Australians and Kohli, who was on 79 at the time before topscoring with a first-innings 92.

Kohli declared he will never be friends with any Australian player after this year’s Test series featured plenty of bad blood, but has since backed away from the comments.

But not every Australian was in Wade’s corner, with former Test fast bowler Stuart Clark saying the stoush was a distraction.

“He misfielded one. Whether the Indian batsman knew he was injured or not was probably a secondary question,” Clark told Sky Sports Radio yesterday.

“It’s one run. Is this the biggest issue this team has got?

“If I’m Matthew Wade and I’m Marcus Stoinis … I’d be worrying about my own cricket, rather than all this other stuff.”