Former Australia batsman and current coach of the Indian Premier League team Gujarat Lions Brad Hodge on Thursday apologised for his comments on the Indian skipper’s shoulder injury.

“My intention was never to harm, criticize or be derogatory towards anyone”, said Hodge in a tweet. “They were intended to be light-hearted comments with the utmost respect to the Indian Premier League which I have thoroughly enjoyed through the years.”

The apology from Hodge was a response to the backlash that emerged after he questioned if Kohli had missed the final Border-Gavaskar Test at Dharamsala to be fit in time for the tenth season of the IPL. Kohli opted out of the Dharamshala Test after stating that he was not 100 percent fit after sustaining a shoulder injury at Ranchi, and was replaced by debutant spinner Kuldeep Yadav. However, Hodge questioned whether Kohli’s injury was severe enough to keep him out of the series decider. India won the Test and seal the series 2-1.

“I’m hopeful, as a Gujarat Lions coach, that when we play RCB [Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore] in a couple of weeks, that he’s not playing. Because if you miss one game of Test match cricket and you’re fronting up the next week for RCB versus whoever at Chinnaswamy Stadium – you’d be pretty dirty if he didn’t front up to a Test match and try and win a valuable series against Australia – which has been pretty spiteful as well,” Hodge had said earlier. “You would think that your captain would get out there and get amongst the fight and get in there. You’d hope as a sportsman that he’s seriously injured.”

The comments did not go down well with Indian fans with Hodge and Indian cricketers. However, the cricketer apologized for his comments and said that he did not mean to harm or criticise anyone.

Ravichandran Ashwin also added a lighter element to the exchange with his tweet: