Virat Kohli takes a dig at Australian media for comparing him to Donald Trump

What’s the story?

Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli has finally spoken up and slammed the Australian media for calling him the Donald Trump of cricket.

"I have always stuck by the right things. Always done the right thing, always said what I wanted to because I feel it is right. I have no regrets about it. I have nothing to go back and change. The only thing -- I am surprised so many people are getting affected by just one individual, so good luck to them. If it's selling their news, good luck to them," Kohli said today at the pre-match media conference.

If they (Australian media) want to write something good or bad, it’s your own personal choice. I am not going to sit here and say write good things about me or bad things about me. It’s your own choice. Everyone has their own conscience to sleep with at night and same applies for everyone," he 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 have popped up. It all started with Nathan Lyon calling Kohli the head of the snake. Now 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. Since then sparks have flown in plenty with the Donald Trump comparison being the latest.

The heart of the matter

A few days back leading Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph published an article saying Kohli is now the Donald Trump of ‘World Sports’ and that he was making up ‘fake news’. The latter came following Steve Smith’s denial of verbally assaulting Indian team physio Patrick Farhat.

Kohli took the opportunity to express his views today wishing the Australia media good luck for selling such news. He also added he wasn’t quite bothered about whatever was said or written about him.

What’s next?

This is surely not the end of it. With still one game and that too, a decider left to go, one would expect both teams to have a crack at each other both on and off the field.

Author’s take

Kohli has shown time and again that he won’t back down from supporting what he believes is right. And this time too it wasn’t different. Maybe this was just the right kind of dose needed to silence the critics who have been on his heels for some time now.