'Virat Kohli spat at me during my first Test tour to India' - Dean Elgar recalls his first encounter with India star

Former South Africa batter Dean Elgar, who recently retired from Test cricket after the series against India, revealed that star India batter Virat Kohli spat at him during his first tour to India. Notably, Elgar came on his first Test tour to the Asian nation in 2015, the year Virat Kohli had become the full-time skipper of the Indian Test team.

The southpaw revealed that he had a tough time facing the spin twins of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja when Kohli decided to have a go at him by spitting on him. However, the former opening batter was quick to respond and threatened to beat the then-Indian captain with his bat.

“My first Kohli encounter in India Those wickets were jokes, like playing on that surface there (points to the ground). I came into bat and, I was actually like holding my own against Ashwin and what’s his name Jeja, Jeja, Jeja (Ravindra Jadeja) and Kohli spat at me. I said to him if you do that, I’ll **** you with this bat,” Elgar said on Banter with The Boys podcast.

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The host of the podcast further asked Elgar if Kohli understood the South African slang and the former Proteas batter revealed that AB de Villiers had told him about it as they played together for RCB.

“Yes, he did because de Villiers was his teammate at RCB, so he understood. And I said if you do that, I’ll **** on this field, I’ll absolutely knock you out. And then [he said] ‘Hey **** you, **** you’ (mimicking Kohli), barking up the wrong tree. Anyways, we are in India so you got to be a little bit cautious,” he added.

Watch the video here:

AB de Villiers made Kohli apologise for the incident

However, Elgar further revealed that AB de Villiers confronted Kohli after he got to know about the incident. Following his confrontation, the former India skipper called up to apologise to him three years later when India toured South Africa in 2018 and the duo made up over a drink.

"De Villiers found out what he did, and went up to him and asked 'why are you spitting at my teammate?' Two years later in South Africa, he called me and asks he could go with me for a drink after the series. He said he wanted to apologise for his actions. We drank till 3 and ya, that was my first encounter with Kohli," Elgar concluded his story.

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Notably, Elgar played a magnificent innings of 185 (287) in the first Test of his last Test series against India in Centurion helping South Africa win the game by an innings and 32 runs. Later on, after his final dismissal in his career in the second Test, Kohli hugged Elgar on his way back to the pavilion wishing him well for his life after cricket.

Elgar had a brilliant record against India scoring 1012 runs from 28 innings at an average of 40.48 with two hundreds and four fifties. He even denied them a series win under his captaincy in 2021-22 beating them by 2-1 with a young side.