Kolkata: India Test captain Virat Kohli on Friday launched a withering attack on his critics, saying nobody ‘in the team has done better than me’.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman used the occasion of a promotional event for the Indian Premier League (IPL) side to hit back at the people who blamed him and attacked his girlfriend Anushka Sharma on social media following India’s World Cup semi-final loss to Australia last month.
But the temperamental Kohli, who averaged an impressive 50 in the Australia and New Zealand showpiece, may also have isolated himself within the Indian dressing room when he said: “In the last five years, the number of matches I’ve helped India win and the consistently I’ve played [with] is more than anyone else in the team. I don’t think there’s anybody else in the team who has done better than me.”
Addressing those who criticised Bollywood actress Sharma, he added: “At a human level, I would say I was hurt and the people who said those things and the way they said [them] should be ashamed.”
Kohli was unusually open during his interaction with media. He said he feels that now he knows “whom to trust” after the public outrage over his soft dismissal in the crucial semi-final against Australia.
“To see those reactions after just one match was very disappointing for me personally. It makes you lose faith in a lot of people. It’s a good thing in a way. You get to know who’s with you and who’s not. It was not in my control, but the reactions were very disappointing,” Kohli said at the function, where RCB announced a tie-up with home appliances brand Midea.
Taking a dig at the media, Kohli sarcastically remarked that there are different parameters for different players when it comes to form.
“It’s funny that I never know when my rough patch comes, but you make the judgement. In my case, if I don’t do well in two games, it’s a dip in form, but if some other player performs two games out of 10, they come back in form,” Kohli said.
“So I don’t get the balance and I really don’t pay attention to it. It’s about how you hit the ball on that particular day.”
