Virat Kohli on Monday dismissed speculation of a rift with his One-Day International deputy Rohit Sharma, the India captain saying: “It’s baffling. It's absolutely ridiculous to read such stuff."
“We are feeding off lies, overlooking facts. We are turning a blind eye to all the good things that have happened. We are creating fantasies in our head and accept them as the truth,” Kohli said at a press conference before the national squad leaves for a tour of the West Indies.
“I have seen this for too long now… bringing personal lives is disrespectful. I have played for 11 years, Rohit has played for 10 years. It’s bizarre that people are creating this stuff from outside."
Vinod Rai, chief of the Committee of Administrators that manages the day-to-day functioning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, too had rejected speculation of such a rift.
No such nonsense
India head coach Ravi Shastri too denied reports of a rift. “No individual is bigger than the game. The way they play is in the interest of the team. You cannot have this kind of consistency across all formats if there’s rift or division. It’s not possible. I have been part of the dressing room for some time. There’s none of that nonsense there,” he said.
There were even media reports that Kohli’s wife, Anushka Sharma, had a falling out with Sharma’s wife, Ritika Sajdeh.
Shastri, however, had a tongue-in-cheek reply: “Very soon you will read wives batting and bowling…”
At the World Cup in England and Wales, Sharma was the highest run-scorer with five hundreds, but Kohli has a less spectacular but still strong outing, scoring five half-centuries.
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