“Clearly He’s Reading Social Media”: Ex-New Zealand Star On Virat Kohli’s Rant On Critics

Virat Kohli has been dominating headlines following his brutal answer to his critics who were not happy with his approach and strike rate while batting in the ongoing IPL 2024. Kohli is currently one of the highest run-scorers in this year’s competition but that has not saved him from constant criticism and questions were even asked about his possible inclusion in India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024. Following Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s win over Gujarat Titans, Kohli opened up about the criticism and said that he is not bothered by the chatter. Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull reacted to Kohli’s reaction on Cricbuzz and said that he should not be bothered about social media.

“Why is he bothering? I mean, seriously, the bloke is such a good player. Why is he bothering reading the rubbish that some people write or why are people reading it and telling him? I don’t understand that. I just look at what he’s done. Why would you bother reading social media and try to make a point about it in interviews? If he’s reading social media, he should have better things to do,” Doull said.

“Interesting that he (Kohli) goes back to these things because they won’t be asking him. Are you looking up your strike rate? Those won’t be the questions. Clearly he’s reading social media or someone is reading all the social media about him. He (Kohli) does this quite often in post-match presentations, where he has a point to make about stuff that is written about him,” he added.

Earlier, Kohli said that it is more about winning the game than maintaining a certain strike rate.

“Not really, all the people who talk about strike-rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff. For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years, you’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game in the box. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” Kohli said after the match.