'I Can Pull His Leg': India Star Cricketer On Friendship With Virat Kohli

In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the former India skipper did not score big runs but he will be expected to excel in the second Test in Delhi.

India’s run machine Virat Kohli has reclaimed his form and is in decent touch now. Kohli was going through a rough patch as he was not able to score a century. But in the Asia Cup last year, he ended his century drought by scoring a terrific hundred against Afghanistan. In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the former India skipper did not score big runs but he will be expected to excel in the second Test in Delhi.

Being a Delhi boy, Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi is very familiar to Kohli. Kohli’s long-time colleague Shikhar Dhawan recently revealed his equation with Kohli.

"Virat is a good friend of mine. We share good camaraderie and always enjoy healthy banter. He is a senior player at Team India. I can pull his leg, young players can't. He's a big player. He has achieved so much. We exude good humour and bonhomie since our early playing days," Dhawan told Lallantop.

Dhawan was senior to Kohli when they played for Delhi, but now Kohli is senior to him at the international level.

"Agar ego par lelogey to tussle aygi he aygi. Ye to ego ki baat agyi na. (It's nothing like that. If you take it on the ego, it will hurt you. It is then a matter of ego, isn't it?) If I continue to think that I'm a senior and I'm playing under him. Then there will be ego. It's all frivolous thinking to me. And there's no need to have that. It's of no use”, Dhawan added.

The Indian team is playing against Australia in the second test at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (injured and yet to recover), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.