After Virat Kohli endured one of the more trying Indian T20 League matches of his otherwise illustrious career on Thursday, a comment made by former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has been slammed as 'distasteful' by Kohli's wife Anushka Sharma.
Kohli's team Bangalore suffered a 97-run defeat at the hands of Punjab in their Indian T20 League match, during which Kohli dropped two catches from KL Rahul, Punjab's star performer on the night. The Bangalore captain then went on to get dismissed with just one run off five balls to compound his misery on the night.
Likely referring to a viral social media clip during the lockdown where Kohli was seen facing balls thrown by Anushka from their home's terrace, Gavaskar quipped during that commentary that, "He (Kohli) wants to… he knows the more he practises the better he will become. Now there was a lockdown (in India because of the global pandemic), and he has practised only against Anushka's bowling. That is not going to help him a lot."
This led Anushka to take to Instagram and pen out a 'story' on the platform, beginning with, "That, Mr Gavaskar, your message is distasteful is a fact but I would love for you to explain why you thought of making such a sweeping statement on a wife accusing her for her husband's game? I'm sure over the years you have respected the private life of every cricketer while commentating on the game. Don't you think you should have equal amount of respect for me and us?"
"I'm sure you can have many other words and sentences in your mind to use to comment on my husband's performance from last night or are your words only relevant if you use my name in the process?"
"It's 2020 and things still don't change for me. When will I stop getting dragged into cricket and stop being used to pass sweeping statements."
"Respected Mr Gavaskar, you are a legend whose name stands tall in this gentleman's game. Just wanted to tell you what I felt when I heard you say this."
It is important to note that Gavaskar's comments were initially misconstrued on social media with a quote that insinuated that Gavaskar had said that Kohli had only practised with Anushka's 'balls' instead of 'bowling', the latter being what the Little Master had actually said.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Prakash Singh, Manjunath Kiran
