At the end of an acrimonious series, one would have thought the unsavoury on-field incidents which marred a highly competitive contest would have been dead and buried. Not so, if one goes by what Virat Kohli had to say.
On being asked by an Australian reporter whether he still considered the Australians to be his friends as he had said at the start of the series, Kohli minced no words and said, "No, it has changed for sure. I thought that was the case but it has changed for sure. As I said in the heat of the battle, you want to be competitive but yeah I have been proven wrong. The thing I said before the first Test, I have certainly been proven wrong and you won't hear me say that ever again."
As in the past, this series between India and Australia had its fair share of controversy: The ‘brain fade’ incident where Aussie skipper Steven Smith took the help of the dressing room on deciding whether to go for a DRS (Decision Referral System) review; Glen Maxwell clutching his shoulder apparently mocking Kohli’s shoulder injury; Smith calling Murali Vijay a cheat for falsely claiming a catch.
The media also waded in and referred to Kohli as the Donald Trump of cricket.
On all the criticism coming his way, Kohli said, "Some people want to create some spice sitting at some part of the world. They don't confront such situations themselves. The easiest thing to do is to just sit at home and write a blog or speak on the mike but to go out there and bowl and bat is different."
It remains to be seen whether the simmering tension from the test series spills over into the upcoming Indian Premier League, where quite a few players from both the sides will be playing with and against each other.