India vs Australia: Virat Kohli reveals why Ishant Sharma was angry despite win

Indian captain Virat Kohli revealed that fast bowler Ishant Sharma was absolutely livid with his no-balls during the second innings of the Australia batting effort.

Ishant picked up vital wickets at critical moments, but then also over-stepped as many as 5 times. This also cost him the wicket of Aaron Finch and the captain said, that it left the lanky fast bowler ‘pissed’.

“Ishant was the most pissed off right now,” Kohli said after the match. “We were all celebrating but he was really, really angry with himself and we asked him why and he said, ‘I cannot afford to bowl a no-ball being a senior guy and having played so much cricket in the crunch situation when the umpire could have given that out’.

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Ishant, who kept struggling with his run up in both the innings, was not very pleased with himself when he overstepped in what could have been pivotal moments during the match.

“It’s not a school-team environment here,” said Kohli. “So, look, guys take ownership of those things but they can commit mistakes. As long as the attitude is right, we look to correct those mistakes.

“It’s not a case of not wanting to talk about it, but they are unhappy themselves that they made a mistake at a crunch situation and, come that situation again, they don’t want to do it. So that’s the most you can ask from any player playing for their country and that’s certainly the right attitude to have,” Kohli added.

First Published: Dec 10, 2018 15:05 IST