Virat Kohli says allegation of ‘ball-tampering’ a non-issue

Virat Kohli will face no investigation to determine whether the emergence of video footage in the Rajkot Test shows him applying an artificial substance to the ball.

The incident was perceived by some that the Indian ace had a small mint in his mouth before shining the ball with saliva.

Ball-tampering has been a hot issue this week after Faf du Plessis strongly disputed his conviction in the “Mintgate” row during South Africa’s Test series in Australia.

Bayliss said: “The one thing with Jos, if he plays the same way as he does in one-day cricket, I think that’s the way ahead for him, red ball or white ball”.

‘To me a newspaper article doesn’t matter over the word of the ICC. “We need to play good cricket”, he insisted. “As far I am concerned, there is nothing that our players are a part of”, Kumble told reporters here on Thursday.

Kohli claimed that the allegations were meant to divert focus from the ongoingIndia-England test series. But we’re totally focused on what we have to do.

The ICC said in a release, “Kohli is now top-ranked in Twenty20 Internationals and has also held the top position in One-Day Internationals, but has never moved above 10th place in Tests”.

England openers Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed made India’s bowlers toil without success for 50 overs on Sunday but their lack of intent to score runs made the team’s survival even more hard, the hosts’ captain Virat Kohli said. Like I said at the start of the series, the bowlers have been brilliant. “No mention of it till (India’s) Vizag victory”, Kohli said.

Cook believes the visitors can still draw positives from their 246-run loss, which leaves the tourists 1-0 down in the five-match series. But I realised if you want to stay on top playing three formats in this day and age you need a routine.

Kohli said that the allegations were levelled in an attempt to distract attention. As far as I am concerned, neither the umpire nor the match referee ever came to us talking about it.

“We were not financially blessed, we could not afford to get stuff we wanted all the time so had limited options and had to make the most of it”. We played some good cricket at stages in these first two games.

He added, “If you’re seen putting a sweet on to the ball, I think that is against the rules”.