Delhi Capitals (DC) off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently revealed that his team’s head coach Ricky Ponting and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli had an on-field altercation when the two teams met during their reverse fixture at IPL 2020.
On his YouTube show, Ashwin stated that he had left the field after completing his quota of four overs owing to back pain. During the strategic timeout, Kohli started to discuss the same with on-field umpires. It was then when Ponting said something and the two got involved in a war of words.
“I had a back problem when I ran. It was a terrible pain. They took MRI scans, and it was traced to a nerve pull on my back. I went off after bowling. The opposition thought, I bowled four overs and went in. They asked ‘How can that be done?’
“Ricky, we all know, never backs off from a fight. And when RCB questioned, he said we aren’t like that. It was just at the heat of the moment,” Ashwin, who picked 13 wickets in the recently concluded IPL, said.
The 34-year-old also talked about how it felt to dismiss Kohli for the first time in IPL finally.
“I have always loved bowling to Virat. He would never take chances against me. Would not give his wicket; it was a matter of pride for him. MS Dhoni also is like that. In Pune, 2016, I set him up with a ball outside off and it went really high and just as I was thinking, ‘Aaha, Kohli’s wicket’ Ankit Sharma let the ball slip through his hands at extra-cover! Ai! What have you done!
“From then on people would keep saying Ashwin hasn’t taken a wicket of Kohli and so when I finally took his wicket now, it was a happy and a pleasing moment; a personal justification of sorts,” he added.
Well, Ashwin will now lead the Indian spin bowling department in the upcoming Test series against Australia, which is scheduled to start on December 17 with the first match being a day-night contest in Adelaide.
