'Virat must learn this from Dhoni' - Sanjay Manjrekar criticizes Virat Kohli for calling outside talk 'nonsense'

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has taken a jibe at the Indian captain Virat Kohli for calling outside talk ‘nonsense.’ Ahead of the ODI series against England in Pune, Kohli said that he doesn’t hear all the outside talk which has been going around in the media. Kohli also said that his team won’t let the outside talk get into the side. 

Manjrekar tweeted about the same. In the tweet, he criticized Kohli for his stance on this issue. He opined that the outside talk which the captain has termed as nonsense is basically the public opinion based on the team’s performance. He further said that the current Indian skipper should learn from the former skipper, MS Dhoni who could handle it with calmness and maturity.

“Outside talk which Virat calls nonsense is basically public reacting to a public performance. And it’s always been the same- Praise when you do well, critique when you don’t. Virat must learn to accept this age-old reality with calmness & maturity. Just like Dhoni did,” Manjrekar tweeted on this issue. 

We’re not going to let it enter our system even in the future: Virat Kohli on outside talk

In the recently concluded T20I series against England, the Indian team made several changes in the lead-up to the final match. Even in the final match, they opted to make a change as the captain Kohli decided to open the innings with Rohit Sharma, letting Suryakumar Yadav come in at no. 3. All these changes have earned some criticism from outside experts and the public. 

Kohli had said at the press conference, “From the first to the last day of my career, all this outside talk has been nonsense to me. Who says what and why about a player, what’s the motive behind it, what’s the thinking behind it, it’s better that all that remains outside because we’re not going to let it enter our system even in the future. We are going to back our players and try and give them a good mental space.”

Kohli’s straightforwardness has been misinterpreted by the masses several times. This was another time when he faced criticism from a cricket expert. Manjrekar has been known to give out his opinion with freedom and now it seems that he is directly targeting the Indian skipper.