Attacking Someone Over Religion Is The Most Pathetic Thing, We Stand By Shami: Virat Kohli Said In Response To ABP LIVE Bengali

As a captain, Virat Kohli is determined to back Mohammed Shami, one of his key bowlers, during this tough time.

Kolkata: It’s been one week now but the loss against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup still haunts the cricket lovers of India. But Team India captain Virat Kohli is more disturbed the way fast bowler Mohammed Shami was attacked over his religion just after that match. As a captain he is determined to back Shami, one of his key bowlers, during this tough time.

India is facing New Zealand in their second match of the T20 World Cup on Sunday. Virat Kohli met the press virtually before that much. ABP LIVE BENGALI asked Kohli how is he backing up Shami after he gets attacked over religion. In reply, the Indian captain said, “To me, attacking someone over religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that one can do. Everyone has the right to express their opinion and what they feel of a particular situation. I have never ever thought of discriminating anyone over their religion and that is a very sacred and personal thing to every human being.”

Kohli went on to elaborate his point. He said, “People bring out their frustration in this way. They have no understanding of what we do as an individual. They have no understanding of how much effort we put on the field. They have no understanding of the fact that someone like Mohammed  Shami has won India en number of matches in the last few years and he is our primary bowlers along with Jasprit Bumrah when it comes to making an impact in the game.

“In test cricket if you have seen him to run in to bowl, I mean if people can overlook that and his passion for the country. I even don’t want to waste even one minute of time in my life to give any attention to those people and neither does Shami and neither does anyone in the team. We stand by him fully. We are backing him up 200 per cent.

“And all those who have attacked him can come with more force if they want to, our brotherhood and our friendship within the team and nothing can be shaken. I can guarantee you that as the captain of the team that we have built a culture within the team where these things will not even infiltered into this environment, .00001 per cent and that is an absolute guarantee from my side.”

On asked whether the team is over dependent on Jasprit Bumrah in terms of taking wickets, Virat said, “Jasprit obviously is the best all format bowler in the world. And precisely why there is so much expectation on him not just from people on the outside but himself as well. So he takes a lot of pride on that and we are not at all bothered about how much expectation he takes, on the outside it doesn’t matter hoenstly. All the other bowlers we believe are good enough to pick us wickets. And in the last game including Jasprit we were not able to pick up wickets. Hence I said as a unit we did not execute the plans that we wanted to and the opposition also didn’t allow us to come into the game as a batting unit and as a bowling unit. So its not given that will happen again and again. We are quality cricketers and we know what we need to do and when we execute on our day we can beat any team convincingly in any part of the world. We have shown this again and again.”