KOLKATA: India’s Test captain Virat Kohli on Friday lashed out at critics, who blamed his girlfriend Anushkha Sharma for the team’s exit from ICC Cricket World Cup, stating that they “should be ashamed of themselves” as “no one has won more matches” than him in the last five years.
Kohli, opened up for the first time since the World Cup exit, after which his film star girlfriend took a lot of unnecessary flak in various social networking sites.
“At a human level, I would say I was hurt and the people who said those things and the way they said should be ashamed of themselves,” Kohli said at a promotional event of his IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore, in reference to the abuse that the Bollywood star had to face after Kohli’s poor show in the semi-final.
Kohli was unusually open during his interaction with media on Friday as he didn’t forget to mention his performance during the past five years.
“Personally, I was very disappointed. In last five years, the number of matches I’ve helped India win and the consistently I’ve played is more than anyone else in the team.
I don’t think there’s anybody else in the team who has done better than me,” Kohli answered with same swagger that one finds in his batting.
Kohli feels that now he knows “whom to trust” after the public outrage over his poor show against Australia in the semi-final of the World Cup.
“To see those reactions after just one match was very disappointing for me personally. It makes you lose faith in a lot of people. It’s a good thing in a way. You get to know who’s with you and who’s not. It was not in my control. But the reactions were very disappointing,” Kohli said at the function where RCB announced its tie-up with home appliances brand Midea.
Taking a dig at the media, Kohli sarcastically remarked that there are different parameters for different players when it comes to dip in form.
“It’s funny that I never know when my rough patch comes but you make the judgment. In my case, if I don’t do well in two games, it’s dip in form but if some other player performs two games out of 10, they come back in form,” Kohli was at his sarcastic best.
“So I don’t get the balance and I really don’t pay attention to it. It’s about how you hit the ball on that particular day,” Kohli was again in his usual dismissive self.
Despite having star players in AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and himself it has not translated in performance as the two-time Runners-Up are confident of turning it around in the eighth edition of IPL.
“We have some experienced players like AB de Villiers, Mitchell Starc (out for three weeks), who have had a dream run in the World Cup. I’m very confident that we’ll go far in the tournament and hopefully will win the IPL-8 title.”
IPL helps in building relationships with foreign players and Kohli himself is close to West Indian players like Chirs Gayle and Darren Sammy along with mercurial South African captain AB de Villiers.
“It’s a lot of fun getting along with players like AB, Gayle and now Sammy. It’s enjoyable out there in middle when you get to have partnerships with the guys that you usually play against. That’s a small little challenge in itself.”
Kohli said that the team is looking in great shape and are confident of winning the title this time.
“The team is looking in great shape, we have got some new players this year. The team is feeling really confident; we are focusing on our strengths. So far, after two days’ of practice, the guys are looking in really good touch.”?
“We have played the final twice and on two occasions reached the semi-finals, but have not been able to go through.”
Kohli feels that RCB is a popular franchise and the skipper attributes it to brand of cricket that the team
“It’s the kind of cricket that RCB plays. People enjoy watching our cricket and our team and they want to see RCB win the title. The focus is to lift the trophy but it’s too far fetched so focusing on one at a time should be the way forward.”
The Test captain said captaining the IPL franchise was a lot easier than the national team.
“Captaining IPL team is not as difficult as national team. You have guys all over the world, you don’t need to tell the guys what to do. It makes the job easier to captain the guys who have led their respective countries. It’s comparatively an easier job,” said Kohli.
Like Rohit Sharma or VVS Laxman of earlier era, Kohli also loves playing at the iconic Eden Gardens.
“I love playing here. I got my first International century here so it’s special. It was pretty different how it played last year. It was great to see both bowlers and batsmen getting help from the wicket. It was pleasing to see Eden wicket playing as it used to some three-four years back,” he concluded.–PTI
