Michael Vaughan mocks ‘emperor’ Virat Kohli, posts picture of India captain holding return flight tickets

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has found himself entangled in an issue which is not English. After ex-cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar raised a storm by calling Ravindra Jadeja a “bits and pieces cricketer”, Vaughan engaged in a banter with him that resulted in an upset Manjrekar blocking him on Twitter. And now, Vaughan has faced flak from the Indian cricket fans for mocking the Men in Blue’s exit from the ICC World Cup 2019.

India lost to New Zealand by 18 runs in the first semi-final of the World Cup on Wednesday at Old Trafford that was played over two days because of rain interruption. Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat and the Kiwis scored 239 for 8 after 50 overs that could be completed only on Wednesday after the match started on Tuesday. India’s top order was rocked as they were reduced to 5 for 3 before Ravindra Jadeja and Mahendra Singh Dhoni added 116 runs for the seventh wicket to take Virat Kohli’s side close to the target. India were eventually all out for 221 in 49.3 overs.

‘Emperor’ Kohli holds a return boarding pass

The ICC had put up a picture of Kohli posing in an emperor’s attire before the World Cup that had drawn ire. Many felt the international body was being partial to the Indian team. Now, after the two-time champions got knocked out, Vaughan posted the same picture on his Instagram account with a small change. This time, the photo showed ‘emperor’ Kohli sitting with a return flight boarding pass in his hand.

Vaughan also captioned the photo with “Tickets please” and tagged the ICC.

While New Zealand became the fifth team in the history of the World Cup to make successive World Cup finals, England and Australia will battle it out in the second semi-final at Edgbaston on Thursday. While Australia made four consecutive World Cup finals (1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007), West Indies did it thrice (1975, 1979 and 1983), Sri Lanka (2007 and 2011) and England (1987 and 1992) twice.

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For India, it was the second consecutive semi-final loss after 2015 when they lost to Australia by 95 runs in Sydney.