Former Australian bowler Geoff Lawson slammed Virat Kohli, urging him to show more responsibility and better behaviour as captain of the Indian cricket team.
“As a leader and as a captain of a cricket team where you’ve got lots of responsibilities, you’ve got to show more gravitas and responsibility than this.These sorts of actions are those of your worst behaved player,” Lawson was quoted as saying by PTI during an interview. The former Pakistan coach said that Kohli needs to calm down and show a little maturity on the field. He was also surprised that Kohli was not penalised for his on-field conduct.
“Send-offs are supposed to be against the code of conduct and he was certainly caught on camera using some bad language in the second Test match. I’m surprised he didn’t get reported. But he must be treading a really fine line with the umpires and match referees because you’re not supposed to give players send-offs. And his language has been pretty much unacceptable. And for a captain to then carry out a press conference and then just show so little diplomacy. But he’s a great, great player. He’s one of the best players going around, but you’ve got to behave as a captain better than that,” Lawson said.
Kohli has found himself in the centre of the storm as India and Australia continue their off-field antics in the ongoing series. With the series tied at 1-1, the banter is expected to continue in the next few days.
The final Test will be played in Dharamsala from March 25. This series has seen a long list of verbal spats between teams and players. The latest was a dig at Kohli, made by Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland, who said that he is not sure if the Indian captain knows how spell the word “sorry”.