“Clearly he’s reading social media”: Former New Zealand star on Virat Kohli’s rant on critics

Virat Kohli has been dominating the headlines following his brutal response to his critics who were not satisfied with his approach and strike rate while batting in the ongoing IPL 2024. Kohli is currently one of the leading run-scorers in this year’s competition, but that hasn’t saved him from constant criticism and even questions have been asked about his possible inclusion in India’s squad for the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup. After Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s victory about Gujarat Titans, Kohli opened up about the criticism and said he is not bothered by the talk. Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull reacted to Kohli’s reaction on Cricbuzz and said he shouldn’t worry about social media.

“Why is he bothering? I mean, seriously, the guy is such a good player. Why is he bothering to read the trash that some people write or why are people reading it and telling him? I don’t understand that. I just look at what he did. Why would you bother reading social media and trying to make that clear in interviews? If he’s reading social media, he should have better things to do,” Doull said.

“It’s interesting that he (Kohli) does these things again because they won’t ask him. Are you checking your strike rate? These will not be the questions. Clearly he is reading social media or someone is reading all the social media about him. He (Kohli) does this often in post-match presentations, where he has something to say about things that are written about him,” he added.

Earlier, Kohli said that it is more about winning the game than maintaining a certain strike rate.

“Not really, all the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing well are the ones who talk about those things. For me it’s about winning games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done that for 15 years, you’ve done it day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not sure if you haven’t been in that situation, sitting and talk about the game in the box. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who do it day in and day out know what’s going on and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” Kohli said after the match.