Australians are no more friends, fumes Virat
DHARAMSALA: Aside from the on-field jibes by the current Australian players — Glenn Maxwell grabbing his shoulder in an attempt to mock Virat Kohli’s injury should easily come to mind — former Australian players and members of media have not held back in laying it into the Indian team during the ongoing Test series between the two nations.
The 2017 Border-Gavaskar Test series has been described as one of the lowest points in relations between the Indian and Australian cricket teams.
Aside from the fiercely contested matches, there have been plenty of spiteful comments.
Virat Kohli has being compared with animals, Australia skipper Steve Smith cited “brain fade” to dodge a cheating allegation wherein he attempted to get assistance of his dressing room before asking for the decision review system to be used for his dismissal in the second Test in Bangalore.
At the post match media conference on Tuesday after India handsomely beat Australia in Dharamsala, India skipper Virat Kohli said he does not consider Australian cricketers as his friends anymore.
An Australian reporter asked if Kohli still considered Steve Smith’s men his friends off the field as he had said at the start of the series. Virat Kohli replied: “No, it has changed for sure. I thought that was the case but it has changed for sure. As I said in the heat of the battle, you want to be competitive but yeah I have been proven wrong. The thing I said before the first Test, I have certainly been proven wrong and you won’t hear me say that ever again.”
Virat Kohli had stopped short of calling Steve Smith a cheat for his ‘DRS Brain Fade’ moment after which a section of Australian cricketers and their media targeted the India captain. The Daily Telegraph went on to call Virat Kohli “the Donald Trump of world sport.” Even Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said Kohli “perhaps does not know the spelling of sorry”