Five instances where fans lashed out at Virat Kohli

One of the finest cricketers the game has ever witnessed, Virat Kohli is into his thirties and here begins a new phase in his life. Despite achieving so much in his tenure over the last few years, one cannot rule out a fact that his best years are still ahead. The Indian skipper would be desperate to carry his purple patch into the World Cup next year and win the coveted trophy.

In every calendar year of Virat’s international career thus far, there have been some outstanding moments to savor. But another thing we see quite often is the Indian captain getting hammered on social media for the good or bad reasons.

It’s not right to judge a person based on a few instances and at the same time, we cannot forget the other instances where the same person personified humanity. The Indian skipper had a fair share of controversies in the last few years and here are five incidents where Kohli’s actions or words sparked severe outrage on social media.

1. Fallout with Anil Kumble

Well, this saga needs no introduction to Indian cricket fans. In the fag end of 2016, MS Dhoni announced that he’s stepping down from the captaincy post in ODIs and T20Is which made Kohli the captain across all formats. The men in blue were doing a terrific job under Anil Kumble, but the Indian coach’s apparent headmaster attitude didn’t go down well with Kohli.

The 30-year-old kept lodging complaints to the hierarchy over his reservations with Kumble. Eventually, Kumble stepped down after the 2017 Champions Trophy and this went down very badly with the fans and former cricketers. Not many could digest the fact that under Kohli’s leadership, one of Indian greatest icons got disrespected and former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar‘s reaction pretty much summed up the whole scenario.

“So you want softies. You want somebody to just tell you, ‘ok boys, don’t practice today because you guys are not feeling well, ok take a holiday, go shopping’. If somebody is a hard taskmaster and he has got you results like Anil Kumble has got over the last one year. If any of the players are complaining, I feel those players are the ones who should be left out of the team,” Gavaskar said as quoted by NDTV.