Virat Kohli on Sunday scored a brilliant century on a wicket where scoring runs was proving to be an uphill task. His unbeaten knock of 101 was instrumental in India posting a total of 326 against the mighty South Africans, who lost the match by 243 runs. India bowled them out for just 83 runs. But despite being declared Player Of The Match, Kohli is now being accused of playing for his personal records. The person making this extraordinary allegation is a former Pakistani cricketer and giving credence to his wild allegations are Rohit Sharma fans. Faced with raging debate on social media, a former Indian cricketer has come out in the open to shut them up.
It all started with former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Hafeez accusing Kohli of being selfish on a Pakistani TV channel. Hafeez said, “To me the approach (by Kohli) to score the last three runs once he reached 97 was wrong. You are thinking about your own milestones in the 48th, 49th and 50th over and not about the team…I know it’s natural for you to think about your personal milestone, but you are representing your country.”
Mohammad Hafeez Called Virat Kohli Selfish for trying to take singles for his hundred instead of hitting boundaries. #ViratKohli #CWC23 #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/cULtO3SJuL
— Shaharyar Ejaz 🏏 (@SharyOfficial) November 6, 2023
Hafeez said that he himself was a huge fan of Kohli but he didn’t like the player’s approach to score in singles to complete his century.
Kohli himself had clarified that he was aware of the difficulties the pitch at the Eden Gardens posed, adding that it was proving to be a challenging task to score runs freely. According to Kohli, 326 was an ‘above par’ total and enough to defend at the Eden Gardens.
But, this didn’t stop Rohit Sharma fans to side with a former Pakistani cricketer as they too launched a sustained attack on the former India skipper accusing him of being a selfish player.
Here’s how they reacted on social media;
Rohit Sharma hitting sixes when in 80’s & 90’s. So Called KING Kohli was begging for single to complete century.
Choose your idol wisely. #INDvSA #Selfish
— ْ (@shiv0037) November 5, 2023
Seeing Virat kohli making 100s in such selfish way and playing to statpad this is Totally disgrace to the game of cricket if you guys are prasing it.
God knows I have never ever seen dhoni played like slow centuries and he sacrifices all his emotions for country – GG 🗣️#INDvsSA pic.twitter.com/Z671hoO2U1
— sathya’ (@saxxxthya) November 5, 2023
India would have topped the points table if this shameless Kohli hadn’t begged for his personal milestones.
For selfish Virat Kohli , Century > 🇮🇳#ShameOnKohli 😡 pic.twitter.com/dTiEtUftuo
— Jyran (@Jyran45) November 1, 2023
This the player young should follow not selfish kohli pic.twitter.com/JBimAYN1en
— Some (@Some94858858150) November 5, 2023
According to Chokli fans
Kohli Selfish Rohit Sharma
49th Century Playing for Team
is Good is Slow pic.twitter.com/Rgbt2ne9Yv— ᴍʀ.ᴠɪʟʟᴀ ™ (@LuccyDevil) November 5, 2023
Fed up with the pointless debate on social media, former India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad decided to come to Kohli’s defence as hew rote, “Hearing funny arguments about Virat Kohli being Selfish and obsessed with personal milestone. Yes Kohli is selfish, selfish enough to follow the dream of a billion people, selfish enough to strive for excellence even after achieving so much, selfish enough to set new benchmarks, selfish enough to ensure his team wins. Yes, Kohli is selfish.”
Such was the impact of Kohli’s batting on Sunday that even his known detractors such as former India player, Gautam Gambhir, showered praises on him saying that both he and Shreyas Iyer were batting on a different planet. This, he said, was due to the fact that it was not easy to play spin bowlers at the Eden Gardens.