Steve Smith rubbishes Virat Kohli's DRS abuse stand during Bengaluru Test

Australian skipper Steve Smith, in his biography ‘The Journey’, talked in detail about the infamous ‘Brainfade incident’ involving Indian captain Virat Kohli. Smith termed Kohli’s claims of DRS abuse as rubbish and denied about any consultation with the dressing room.

The incident took place during the 4th innings of Bengaluru Test between India and Australia where the Australian captain was adjudged leg before wicket. During the time allowed for opting DRS, Smith evidently looked towards the dressing room to consult about taking the DRS.

Virat Kohli immediately protested the move and talked about it vigorously during the post-match conference.”It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised what a talking point it had become, fuelled by Kohli’s post-match claims that we’d called on off-field assistance twice earlier in the match to help our on-field deliberations,” wrote Smith in his book.

Smith talks in detail about the ‘Brainfade’ incident

“As far as I was concerned, we’d never tried to consult with the dressing room beforehand and although he said he’d brought those previous occasions to the notice of the umpires, I can say categorically that we were never spoken to by either those umpires or match referee Chris Broad about any such breaches in protocol,” further added the Australian all format captain.

Steve Smith then talked about the typical behaviour of Kohli where intensity brings out the best in him. Smith claimed that it was Kohli’s way of soaring up the temperature of the series.

“Virat has always been a player who’s thrived in the most intense of environments, and like me he loves a battle and I can only think it was his way of raising the temperature in the series in an attempt to get the best out of himself. The idea of getting messages from the sidelines for that purpose was not a tactic we as a team ever spoke about and … I can’t work out what he was referring to in his remarks,” concluded the 28-year old.