Former Australia captain Allan Border has come to the defence of Virat Kohli, saying his antics might be over the top but the game needs more "characters" who show "passion". The Indian skipper has come under criticism for his sledging and heated exchanges with Australian counterpart Tim Paine during the tense second Test in Perth, which at one point needed the umpire to intervene.
Bowling great Mitchell Johnson also slammed Kohli for failing to acknowledge the crowd's applause after he was controversially given out in the first innings for 123, and for his frosty handshake with Paine at the end of the game. Kohli's animated wicket celebrations have also been widely frowned upon while India legend Sunil Gavaskar hit out at his "selection blunders".
And in a stunning rebuke, veteran Bollywood star Naseeruddin Shah described him as "not only the world's best batsman but also the world's worst behaved player". "Kohli's cricketing brilliance pales beside his arrogance and bad manners," added Shah on Facebook. But Border leapt to the Indian Captain's defence, saying the game needed players like Kohli.
"I haven't seen anyone sort of carry on so much as a captain when his side takes a wicket," he said in a Fox Sports podcast Thursday. "It's really over the top but it's good in a way. You can see some passion about what he's trying to do. "There's not many characters in our game at the moment," Border added.
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