Indian top-order heavyweights, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, might be the best in white-ball cricket presently, but they have had their own share of miscommunication with each other.
Whenever the two bat, spectators are treated with elegant strokeplay, providing a feast for the eyes. However, the two do not communicate that well when it comes to running between the wickets or while fielding, as mentioned by Kohli recently.
The two have been involved in a number of run-outs in One-Day cricket. Now, Kohli has shared an incident during the 2012 Asia Cup game against Pakistan, where their miscommunication led to the then Indian captain, MS Dhoni, frowning at them.
During the match, Pakistan, on the back of Nasir Jamshed and Mohammad Hafeez were well on course to post a mammoth total.
“It was very funny, and I remember MS wasn’t too happy about it. Pakistan I think had posted 329 and they had some very big partnerships in the beginning. At that time we (he and Rohit) sort of messed up, it was supposed to be a single, but we gave away three runs,” Kohli told Ravichandran Ashwin on his Instagram Live show, ‘Reminisce with Ash’.
On one of the deliveries from Ashwin, Umar Akmal flicked the ball towards the leg side, in between Rohit and Virat, placed at deep square leg and deep mid-wicket, respectively.
“I remember Irfan (Pathan) running after the ball and throwing it back to MS and MS was like how can these two guys just collide and give away three runs. The bowler was you (Ashwin). I remember Umar Akmal played it like that, I was at deep mid-wicket and Rohit was at deep square-leg,” added India’s all-format captain.
On what should have been just a single conceded, India ended up conceding three runs due to a collision between the two.
“I came in, Rohit was also going for the ball, and the side of my head hit Rohit’s shoulder. I don’t think it was that serious, it was just the heat of the moment when we went for the ball and like for five minutes couldn’t figure out what had happened,” concluded Virat.
While chasing 329, Kohli scored his best ODI knock of 183, which helped India cruise towards victory with a couple of overs to spare – thereby redeeming himself for the fielding error.
