Indian cricket icon Virat Kohli has been a topic of debate on social media ever since veteran Indian spinner Amit Mishra sparked a controversy with his comments on a podcast. From suggesting that Kohli changed for the sake of “fame and power”, to accusing him of abusing his Lucknow Super Giants teammates during an IPL 2023 game, Mishra launched a direct attack on Kohli during his chat on a Youtube channel. Kohli’s fans, in defense, came out with guns blazing, highlighting the examples of some of Virat’s other former teammates, like Ishant Sharma, with whom he still maintains an excellent camaraderie.
Amidst this debate on the internet, an old video of India’s trip to Australia in 2014 resurfaced on social media. In the series, Virat had become a constant target of the Australians, especially Mitchell Johnson, with whom he had many verbal battles on the field.
When Kohli was asked about his verbal duels at the press conference, especially from a “respect” point of view, he said he came out to play cricket and not to gain people’s respect.
“I’m here to play cricket, not to earn anyone’s respect. As long as I’m scoring runs, I’m happy with that. If you like it, great,” he said.
He further added, “I don’t really care what they think as far as respecting me or respecting them. I have good friendships with some of them. But anyone who says anything that comes to their mouth, I don’t.” I don’t respect it.”
I am here to play cricket, I am not here to gain anyone’s respect – Virat Kohli pic.twitter.com/wMd2lwiFS9
– (@Kohlifiedd18) July 16, 2024
During a chat with Shubhankar Mishra on YouTube’s ‘Unplugged’, Amit Mishra said, “I saw Virat change a lot. We almost stopped talking. When you get fame and power, they think people are looking for them for a purpose.” , I have never been one of those. I have known Cheeku since I was 14, when he used to eat Samosas, when he needed pizza every night. But there is a big difference between the Cheeku I knew and Virat Kohli, the captain. , he’s very respectful, but he’s obviously not the same anymore.”
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