Kapil Dev lauds Virat Kohli for standing up for Anushka Sharma

Virat Kohli did almost everything to get India into the finals of the World T20 2016, even taking a wicket off his first ball of the tournament and bowling the last over in order to defend 8 runs. But alas, West Indies had better hitting capabilities and Kohli’s 89* was trumped by Lendl Simmons’ 82* and Andre Russell’s 43* and West Indies dumped India out of the World T20 2016 by 7 wickets.

Former India captain and World cup 1983 winner Kapil Dev said that “You can’t win every match. We could easily have lost the match to Bangladesh too. West Indies played better than us and we have to learn to respect our opponents.”

He also had some words to say on team selection as Shikhar Dhawan was dropped for Ajinkya Rahane and Harbhajan Singh warmed the bench for the entire tournament, despite a not so good bowling performance by Ravindra Jadeja. Kapil said, “After the match, all these questions are raised. If India had taken two catches or not bowled two no balls, these questions wouldn’t have been asked. The Fact is that we made some mistakes and our rivals were better than us that day. But I’m happy that we got to witness such fantastic innings by Virat Kohli.”

He also had some words of admiration for the Indian Test captain, as Virat stood up to the people who were abusing his ex-girlfriend Anushka Sharma on twitter after India lost to West Indies and their campaign in the World T20 2016 ended. Fans had trolled Anushka Sharma after the duo had broken up before the Asia Cup T20 2016 and Virat Kohli put every bit of his focus into his game and the results were outstanding.

Kapil had kind words for Virat, he said, Thank you Virat! I didn’t know you could speak like that. You have become a much bigger person by standing for Anushka.’ Not only as a player, but also as a human being, I adore the man!”

How did the Indian fans react after WT20 exit? – Watch: Fans cheer MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Indian team at Mumbai Airport