Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir was disappointed with Virat Kohli’s stump-mic antics during the Cape Town Test and said that he can’t be a role model in this manner. Gambhir further added that the reaction from Kohli was exaggerated and it was immature of him to behave in such a manner.
he three match Test series between India and South Africa is in balance as both the teams have won a fixture each and the series decider is being played in Cape Town. South Africa have a target of 212 in the second innings and they are comfortably poised at 101/2. Several former cricketers have shown their displeasure over the way captain Virat Kohli reacted to DRS overturning a LBW decision.
Dean Elgar was hit on the pads from a delivery by Ravichandran Ashwin. He was given out LBW by umpire Marius Erasmus. However, the decision was overturned as ball-tracking showed that the ball missed the stumps. The batsman was looking clearly out but ball showing that much bounce in tracking was surprising.
Being left irritated with the ball-tracking technology , Kohli was seen walking towards stump mic and saying, “Focus on your team while they shine the ball. Not just the opposition. Trying to catch people all the time.”
Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir expressed his disappointment over the reaction by Kohli saying he can’t be a role model in this manner. Gambhir also stated that head coach Rahul Dravid should have a word with Kohli regarding this.
“No matter what you say, stuff like he plays with his heart on his sleeve, this reaction was an exaggerated one and you can’t be a role model in this manner. No budding cricketers would want to see this kind of a reaction, especially from the Indian captain. No matter the result in this Test match, this is not what you expect from a Test captain who has led the team for so long. I hope Rahul Dravid has a word with him, because the type of captain Dravid was, he would have never reacted in this manner,” Gambhir stated on Star Sports.
Gambhir further opined that the reaction from India captain was immature. He pointed out an example involving Mayank Agarwal where he was looking OUT from naked eye but technology didn’t give him out.
“This is really bad. What Kohli did, going near the stump mic and reacting in that manner, that is really immature. This is not what you expect from an international captain, from an Indian captain. Then technology isn’t in your hand. Then you have reacted in the same manner when there was a caught-behind appeal on the leg-side, neither did Dean Elgar react in that manner. During that Mayank Agarwal appeal, it looked OUT from the naked eye, but Elgar did not react in that manner,” he said.
India are in search of their maiden Test series win in South Africa and they will be looking to do so picking the remaining eight wickets of the opposition. The hosts have two days to complete the chase and they are in a string position with Keegan Petersen playing on 48 runs.
