Australia responds to Virat Kohli’s DRS claim, calls it outrageous

India skipper Virat Kohli said Smith had “crossed the line” by getting help.

Kohli was angry that Smith appeared to seek guidance from the dressing room over whether to review the decision after he was given out lbw. Smith though, while debating with nonstriker Peter Handscomb on whether to review the decision, looked to the team’s dressing room for assistance.

In a provocative press conference after the Test, Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, accused Australia of using dressing room guidance several times during the Test.

The Indian captain was scathing of former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy’s comments too.

Things especially heated up after Australia captain Steve Smith was dismissed leg before wicket and proceeded to look up at the dressing room after chatting with teammate Peter Handscomb, allegedly to decide whether to question the verdict.

Former India captain and broadcaster Sunil Gavaskar called on the International Cricket Council to investigate.

After the match, Smith blamed a “brain fade”, suggesting the incident was a one-off.

When asked if the word he didn’t want to mention was “cheating”, Kohli replied: “I didn’t say that, you did”. The umpire was quick to inform Steve Smith he was not allowed to do that and probably declined him the choice of the DRS referral after which Steve Smith started walking towards the pavilion.

Smith, 27, admitted his error and described it as “a bit of brain-fade”. “He will learn from that and it must be remembered that he is relatively inexperienced”.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann also said that talks of systematic breach of playing conditions were not true.

Kohli was seen engaged in animated conversations with the opposition and apparently even reminded Matt Renshaw of a pending toilet break.

That deep wrestle for advantage, not the surface shenanigans, was what made this one of the great Test matches. Travis Head, Moises Henriques and Marcus Stoinis loom as likely replacements. Hughes believed the temperamental Maxwell should get the nod because of his all-round prowess. A bit of brain fade.

“We’ve never done any of that”. “So it’s quite pleasing to take Kohli’s wicket”, was all Lyon said.

The two sides have a long history of bad blood and Australia’s shock victory in the first Test, which ended India’s four-year 20-match unbeaten run on home soil, has only heightened tensions.

He did get a bad decision, but he played a bad shot to make himself vulnerable.

India (for first two Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Hardik Pandya. The moment they did not score big in the second innings, we knew we had a chance.

I think (Ravindra) Jadeja was outstanding in the first innings along with our fast bowlers. They also dropped some catches.