India vs Australia 2017: Sourav Ganguly asks Virat Kohli to forget about what happened on the ground

What’s the story?

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has said Virat Kohli should forget about the recent on-field altercations with the Australian team saying that is how he played their cricket. However, the legendary left-handed batsman added that Australian media and former players sledging Kohli wasn’t right.

"I am sure he will loosen up with time. He should forget what happens with the Australian players on the ground (sledging). That is competitiveness. But what happens with media and ex-players getting into sledging the opposition captain wasn't right. It is not their job," Ganguly was quoted by India Today.

"I don't consider there was bad blood. I consider there was competition. Both Virat and Smith should be happy they could put up a show. Both boards and players should get over it," Ganguly added.

In case you did not know

Ever since Australia arrived in India to play the Border-Gavaskar series a lot of off-the-field issues had popped up. It all started with Aussie off-spinner Nathan Lyon calling Kohli the head of the snake. After the win in Bengaluru, Kohli gave it back by saying the visitors can focus on the head while they are being stung from other sides.

The DRS controversy too was part of the same Test match where Steve Smith was looking for hints from the dressing room on whether to review a decision. Kohli once again tore into his counterpart in the post match conference saying the Indians might be poor with DRS but they never look for gestures from the dressing room.

The heart of the matter

Next, the Australian media compared Kohli to Donald Trump for his attitude while reportedly Smith called Murali Vijay a cheat. However, it hasn’t ended there, after India’s win yesterday Mitchell Johnson tweeted that India should persist with Ajinkya Rahane as Test captain and replace Kohli.

Even though Steve Smith apologized at the post-match award ceremony saying sometimes he went out of line. Kohli was in no mood to forgive them easily. The Indian captain in the post-game media conference said the Aussies can never be his friends again.

But Ganguly believes Kohli should let the bygones be bygones as this is the way Australians have been playing cricket since the Steve Waugh days.

What’s next?

It remains to be seen how Kohli behaves with the Aussies the next time he plays against them. Only then we can understand if he has forgotten about the incidents or not.

Author’s take

Coming from the man who changed the face of Indian cricket, Kohli should ponder over the words as there is no point dragging the issues now that the high voltage series is over.