New Delhi: Ahead of the third Test at Mohali, Indian captain Virat Kohli brushed aside all talks of ball tampering and vouched to repeat the performance of the previous match to gain a strong hold on the five-match Test series against England.
Reacting to the ball tampering allegations at the pre-match press conference, Kohli was quick to point out that it was a futile attempt to divert the focus away from cricket. “I think it's just to take the focus out of series,” said Kohli.
British media had alleged Kohli of ball tampering during the first Test match at Rajkot, releasing footage of the Indian captain trying to shine to the ball with his fingers, after rolling them inside his mouth for some time.
“It happened in Australia when South Africa won the series. I'm surprised the issue of what I've been told came up in Rajkot but there was no mention until the result in Vizag,” the Indian captain said in a polite yet sarcastic manner.
There was no official inquiry by the ICC as the neither the England team nor the match referee raised the issue within five days of its occurrence.
Indian head coach Anil Kumble had also aired similar views when he rubbished the allegations. "First of all, I don't want to react to any report that is there in the media. As far as I am concerned, neither the umpire nor the match referee ever came to us talking about it. We would certainly not like to give too much wind to the story," Kumble had said earlier.
Replying to a question thrown at him from a British journalist Kohli said, “If I was doing something ICC would have spoken to me. To me a newspaper article doesn't matter over the decision of ICC. We as cricketers respect that only. And allegations and speculations? I don't read newspapers so I'm not aware of these things, someone told me and I laughed it off,” Kohli added.
Interestingly, it was immediately after the incident involving South African captain Faf du Plessis that the British media came up with the story. Du Pleissis was found guilty of ball tampering during the second test match against Australia in Hobart when he tried to shine ball with residue of a mint kept in his mouth. He was stripped off his total match fees by the ICC. However, the Proteas captain answered with his bat in the third Test. Scoring an unbeaten 118, he played one of his best knocks to take his side to 259 on Day 1 of the day-night Test at Adelaide.