'Main hota to out tha' - Virat Kohli in hilarious banter with umpire Nitin Menon during 4th Test

Indian bowlers are giving their all to restrict Australia on the Day 5 of the ongoing fourth Test at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. However, the pitch hasn’t deteriorated much to aid spinners on Day 5. India could only manage to pick one wicket in the first session with Ravichandran Ashwin trapping night watchman Matthew Kuhnemann in front of the stumps.

However, Indian bowlers couldn’t pick any more wickets with Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne getting set at the crease. During the 35^th over of the innings (second last over before lunch), Ashwin hit the pads of Travis Head and the entire team went up for appeal. However, umpire Nitin Menon was unmoved forcing captain Rohit Sharma to review the decision.

The ball tracking showed that the ball would’ve just clipped the stumps as hitting came on ‘umpire’s call’ and they had to go with the on-field decision. Reacting to the decision, Virat Kohli hilariously told Nitin Menon that he would’ve given it out if he had been batting.

“Main hota to out tha,” Kohli was heard saying on the stump-mic. Nitin Menon also joined in on the fun and smiled at Kohli and raised his finger in amusement followed by a thumbs up.

ßivek¹⁸@Bvekgupta

Virat Kohli on stump mic : "Me hota to out tha " to Nitin Menon 😂😂 #INDvsAUS #AUSvsIND #Cricket #ViratKohli #wtcfinal

12:16 PM · Mar 13, 2023

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Coming back to the match, after the first three Tests ended within three days, the teams got a belter of a track to play on in Ahmedabad. Batters made most of the useful conditions on offer as Australia posted a massive 480 runs on the board in the first innings with Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green scoring centuries. 

In reply, Indian batters also joined the run-scoring party with Shubman Gill scoring a hundred on Day 3 and Virat Kohli ending his century drought in the longest format after 1205 days. Courtesy of their marathon knocks, India posted 571 runs in their first innings taking a lead of 91 runs.

The Rohit Sharma-led side are leading the series 2-1 and a draw in the fourth Test won’t harm India as they’ve already qualified for the World Test Championship final after Sri Lanka lost the first Test against New Zealand by one wicket earlier on March 13 (Monday). The final will be played between India and Australia from June 7 at The Oval.