CA XI vs India: Virat Kohli goes for the toss in shorts; Twittterati react

Indian captain Virat Kohli continued with his good batting form in Australia by hitting 64 off 87 in the only warm-up game against Cricket Australia XI at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday but he still found himself courting a controversy. This is Kohli’s second consecutive fifty following his match-winning knock of 61 off 41 balls made in the third T20I in the same ground last Sunday.

However, Kohli was trolled on social media when he went out for the toss with his CA XI counterpart Sam Whiteman who was in his playing whites. Kohli was seen wearing shorts and the India jersey and it did not go down well with many fans and set the social media buzzing. There were also a few who supported him saying it was only a practice match.

Kohli lost the toss and India were asked to bat first and they were all out for 358 in the first innings, thanks to four other half centurions besides the captain. Opener Prithvi Shaw was the highest scorer with 66. CA XI were 24 for no loss at stumps. It was the second day of the game after Day 1 was completely washed out.

Here are some of the reactions:

Kohli’s second controversy in recent times

This is the second controversy involving Kohli in recent times after the off-field one in which he asked a fan who did not like Indian players’ batting to leave the country and stay elsewhere. The matter led to a divided reception of Kohli’s words with some calling it arrogance. These instances had no impact on the player’s performance on the field as he kept on scoring runs consistently.

India will be eyeing their maiden Test series win in Australia by grabbing the contest beginning in Adelaide on December 6. Many experts are considering this tour as India’s golden opportunity to revise history for Australia do not have two of their premier batsmen – Steve Smith and David Warner in their ranks.

They last returned undefeated from Australia in 2003-04 when they drew a four-match series 1-1. Personally too, Kohli has an opportunity to eclipse former great Sachin Tendulkar in this series by collecting more number of Test hundreds in the Australian soil.

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