Former Indian cricketers have no problem with Virat Kohli’s on-field gestures

Even though India and Australia have had no major issue of confrontation in the ongoing Test series, the visiting skipper Virat Kohli has come under the scanner over verbal duels with his Aussie counterpart Tim Paine on Day 3 and 4 of the second Test played in Perth recently.

Though there was no loss of temper but the exchanges saw one of the on-field umpires stepping in and asking both the captains to rein themselves in. There were also reactions from former Australian and Indian players over Kohli’s gesture on the ground but there were others with a differing opinion as well.

Former India cricketers Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar on Wednesday strongly defended Kohli over his gesture on the ground. While Zaheer is of the opinion that the Indian captain should stick to his success formula and not try to do something different, Praveen felt that it was the same aggression that Kohli had played with at all levels of his cricketing career and there shouldn’t be any issue if he is doing the same while playing for India.

Virat should stick to what he does best, feels Zaheer

“I would say (Virat) stick to what you know best. Stick to what has got you so much of success. You can’t move away from your success formula. It doesn’t matter what others are saying (about Kohli). Series in Australia have always been (intense) like this,” IndiaTV cited reports quoting Zaheer as saying.

“Kohli played with aggression at the U-16, U-19 and Ranji Trophy level. What is the issue if he is showing the same aggression while playing for India? I have played a lot of cricket with him and I can safely say that he can’t play his best cricket without aggression,” Praveen was quoted as saying during the launch of Ferit Cricket Bash, an amateur cricket league.

Besides defending the Indian captain, the two former fast bowlers also lauded the performance of the current Indian pace attack which has bowled out Australia twice in the two Tests played so far.

Calling the current attack to be India’s best ever, Zaheer said: “I think as a unit, yes (they are the best ever) when you look at the four-five fast bowlers on tour. In a long long time, you can see the potential of each and every fast bowler including the bench strength.”

The Australia-India series is tied at 1-1 at the moment with the third match set to begin in Melbourne on December 26.

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