Kohli can't be a role model: Gambhir on his reaction to Elgar's DRS

Former cricketer Gautam Gambhir has called Test skipper Virat Kohli’s reaction to a DRS decision that helped South African captain Dean Elgar save his wicket, “exaggerated” and “really immature”.

Indian players were a tad annoyed when Elgar sought DRS help in the 21st over bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin and got the ground umpire’s decision overturned. On-field umpire Marais Erasmus had ruled it out.

But after the DRS showed the ball going over the stumps and overturned Erasmus’ decision, Indian players reacted angrily.

Ashwin was caught on the stump mic saying, “You should find better ways to win, SuperSport (South African broadcaster).”

Then the videos showed Kohli move towards the stump and say: “Focus on your team as well and not just the opposition, trying to catch people all the time.”

KL Rahul too was heard saying: “Whole country playing against XI guys.”

Also read: Team India under Kohli look poised to capture the last frontier – South Africa

Gambhir, in a conversation with Star Sports, said this is not something that you expect from an “international captain” of India.

“This is really bad. What Kohli did, going near the stump mic and reacting in that manner, that is really immature. This is not what you expect from an international captain, from an Indian captain.”

“This reaction was an exaggerated one and you can’t be a role model in this manner. No budding cricketers would want to see this kind of a reaction, especially from the Indian captain,” he said, adding that technology isn’t in your hands.

And he pointed out that the opposition team did not react when the result went in favour of India.

“When there was a caught-behind appeal on the leg-side, Dean Elgar did not react in that manner. During that Mayank Agarwal appeal, it looked out from the naked eye, but Elgar did not react in that manner,” he said.

Gambhir also hoped that head coach Rahul Dravid would have a word with Kohli, “because the type of captain Dravid was, he would have never reacted in this manner”.