Cheteshwar Pujara defends Virat Kohli ahead of Dharamsala Test cricket match
While the Australian media and members of the Australian cricketing fraternity continue their tirade against Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday defended the Indian skipper ahead of the fourth and final Test in Dharamsala.
The ongoing Test series had thus far had moments of burst ups on the field; with both the teams locking horns after Steve Smith attempted to seek dressing room’s help for DRS usage during the second Test in Bengaluru. While Cricket Australia and BCCI came out in support of their players, they tried to broker peace between warring captains ahead of the Ranchi Test with ICC playing down the incident.
However, that did not really help much as the third Test in Ranchi witnessed Glenn Maxwell mocking Kohli shoulder injury and the Indian skipper, from the dressing room, mocking Australian side for their unsuccessful review.
The Australian media, which had earlier claimed that Kohli threw a bottle at the match official during the Bengaluru Test, went onto compare Kohli with the US President Donald Trump.
A report in the Australian daily said, "Virat Kohli has become the Donald Trump of world sport."
"Just like President Trump, Kohli decided to blame the media as a means of trying to hide the egg smeared right across his face. The Indian captain is a law unto himself with no one, not even the ICC or his own board holding him accountable for his continual perpetuation of fake news," added the report.
If all the argy-bargy was not enough, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland stoked the fire even further after he on Wednesday said that Kohli does not know how to spell sorry.
While there are calls to douse the fire and let the focus shift back to cricket, they have not found success as yet.
Amidst all this drama, Pujara, who recently jumped to career-best world number 2 in ICC Test rankings, expressed sadness as the comments against Kohli continues to fly thick and fast.
“It’s really sad to hear such comments. We fully support Virat and he is one of the great ambassadors of this game. I think the focus has shifted somewhere else which should not have happened. We are very much focused on the game,” said Pujara.
“He is a great leader and a great ambassador for the game. So, we are fully supporting him and we are looking forward for the next game rather than worrying about anything else,” concluded Pujara.
