When R Ashwin Had Heated On-Field Spat With James Anderson Over Comments On Virat Kohli - Watch

when r ashwin had heated on-field spat with james anderson over comments on virat kohli – watch

Among the finest innings played in Test cricket by Virat Kohli in his legendary career is a knock of 235 against England at Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium when the Alaister Cook-led team traveled to India for a marquee five-match Test series in 2016.

However, it was this knock by Kohli that triggered a heated on-field spat between two of the greatest bowlers to ever play the game, Ravichandran Ashwin and James Anderson. It was comments made by Anderson in the press conference after Kohli’s masterful knock that left Ashwin fuming.

The star England pacer dismissed claims that Kohli’s technique had improved since the horror tour to England in 2014. Anderson stated that Kohli’s weakness was not in play in Mumbai indicating the favourable conditions were behind Kohli’s success with the bat.

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“I am not sure if Virat Kohli has changed. I just think any technical deficiencies he has got are not in play out here. The wickets just take that out of the equation. There is not that pace in the wicket to get the nicks, like we did against him in England – with a bit more movement,” said Anderson.

After Anderson walked out to bat on the fifth day of the match with India, just one wicket away from victory, Ashwin had a war of words with the star England pacer. Ironically, it took Kohli himself to calm the situation down, something he joked about in a post-match interaction. The Indian captain had claimed that he was not aware of Anderson’s comments.

“For the first time I was trying to calm things down in the middle at a time when James Anderson is involved. Ashwin wasn’t pleased with what he (Anderson) said in the press and I didn’t even know about it. He told me on the ground. So I didn’t know what to make of it, I was laughing about it, Ashwin wasn’t too impressed and he let him know without using any bad words, honestly,” said Kohli in the post-match press conference.

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“I think he (Ashwin) told me he was pretty disappointed with what he said and it is important to accept defeat as it is. Later on, I told James these things happen and let’s move on,” Kohli added.

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Kohli not only finished as the top scorer of the home series against England in 2016 with a stunning tally of 655 runs in eight innings at an average of 109.16. He repeated the feat on English soil in 2018 to shut critics with 593 runs in five matches and an average of 59.30.

Eight years later, Ashwin and Anderson are still the key men of their team’s bowling attacks as India and England play yet another big series. The duo will enter the third Test at Rajkot from Thursday (February 15) eyeing massive milestones. Ashwin is one wicket away from becoming the second Indian to take 500 Test wickets while Anderson needs five dismissals to become the first pacer to take 700 Test wickets.