Virat Kohli trashes ball tampering allegations

After television footage appeared, Du Plessis was charged by ICC chief executive David Richardson. South Africa coach Russell Domingo said the preparation for the Adelaide Test was not ideal, but the squad was united.

“Ball would bowl an over, then Batty – we try to set fields, so have more of a match feel to practice”.

Du Plessis’ footage – which has proved him guilty of altering the state of the ball based on the evidence that “showed an artificial substance being transferred to the ball” – was brought to the ICC’s notice within five days, following which it reviewed the footage and then decided if it merited investigation.

“I had a little big of a niggle in my knee which I’ve managed over quite a long period of time and it just got a bit sore in that first Test so Cooky and the coach made a decision to rotate the seamers”, he said.

Kohli, 28, was sensational in the 2nd Test match of the five-game series.

He added: “Some people are trying to take the focus away from the series – good luck to them”. English tabloid Dailymail had reported that Kohli attempted ball tampering in the Rajkot Test although the ICC rubbished the reports as baseless.

“Newspaper articles don’t matter over ICC”, the Indian Test captain pointed out. I was told the five days after that thing came out and I laughed it off. It’s a challenge to repeat the same things the team has been doing for a while but I think that is what professional cricketers are picked to do and that’s something that we take as a responsibility but not as a burden. As far as I am concerned, neither the umpires nor the Match Referee ever came to us talking about it.

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”.

He was fined his entire match fee but has incurred no ban and will be free to take part in the third and final Test. In Test bowling ranking, another New Zealand player to make a fine entry was pace bowler Colin de Grandhomme, who was named player of the match for taking seven wickets in Christchurch.

“He has been performing consistently well in first class cricket, we are pretty excited to have him back in the side”, he added.

England: Alastair Cook (capt), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Gareth Batty, Steven Finn, Zafar Ansari, Haseeb Hameed, Jos Buttler (wk), Jake Ball.

‘I think Woakesey summed it up well yesterday because it is a bit of a grey area, ‘ said Cook today ahead of tomorrow’s third Test here in Mohali. I want us to be the fittest Indian team that has played the game as well.

Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement late on Thursday that du Plessis’s decision was made after he and his legal team studied the written reasons provided by the match referee.