Kohli accused of ball tampering

Indian captain Virat Kohli has made huge strides in the International Cricket Council Test ranking for batsmen following his man of the match performance in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam.

Virat Kohli has laughed off suggestions that he tampered with the ball during England’s first Test draw against India and was adamant that he had done nothing wrong.

He further added he don’t want to react on newspaper reports. There is nothing to worry about, people can allege and write whatever they want.

However, South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis was found guilty of ball-tampering and was fined his entire match fee from the Hobart Test. It happened in Australia when South Africa won the series [referring to the Faf du Plessis “mintgate” incident]. “It is like making a mountain out of a molehill”, the former leg-spinner asserted. English tabloid Dailymail had reported that Kohli attempted ball tampering in the Rajkot Test although the ICC rubbished the reports as baseless.

“Verbals and things like that, if you go back 10 years, it was a bigger part of the game and there has been a lot of clampdown”, the wicketkeeper-batsman said.

The visitors, who resumed the day on 268 for 8, were bowled out inside four overs with India’s Mohammed Shami claiming three wickets in the innings.

He was also useful with the bat, posting vital contributions lower down the order.

“I think they’ve done extremely well, learning on the job but learning very quickly”.

“We are adults and that’s something that comes with or against playing sport and I am sure there have been some hiccups”. Probably he had a dream debut.

Meanwhile, when asked about his own bowling, Woakes replied, “we always have to find ways of troubling the batsmen, particularly in these conditions, when generally there is not much help to get that seam movement”. It should be a wicket where the team that plays better cricket should win. The way he bowled was very impressive. Kohli is the benchmark of fitness in Indian cricket and he is inspiring young Indian cricketers to focus on their fitness along with technique and other things.

However, it is highly unlikely that the Indian skipper will face any kind of action as neither the umpire nor the third umpires made any reference to it in the post match report.

“If you lose the toss all of a sudden you’re probably at a slight disadvantage but you still have to play good cricket even if you win it and we did that in Rajkot”, Woakes said.

Given the schedule for this series, not an terrible lot has changed and there’s a perfectly reasonable case to be made for backing India to dominate once again at a venue where they haven’t lost since 1994.

At the same time, he added, “If the ICC feels that this should be banned and this should not go to pitch, maybe it is the way to do it”.