\Virat Kohli’s trumpet celebration that was allegedly directed at the Barmy Army on Day 5 of the fourth Test between India and England at the Oval created an uproar in the cricketing world. However, former captain Michael Vaughan sees nothing wrong with Kohli’s actions, and instead believed the India skipper makes the game exciting with his antics. Kohli brought out the trumpet celebration twice— when Ravindra Jadeja bowled Haseeb Hameed and when Jasprit Bumrah knocked over Jonny Bairstow for a duck – and although nothing is concrete, the gesture is believed to be a shot taken at England’s Barmy Army.
However, Michael Vaughan defended Indian Skipper’s actions and stated that cricket needs ‘characters’ like Kohli, who keep the level of excitement high.
Vaughan told Fox Cricket, “Kohli is an incredible leader. You know, he’s got this incredible buzz of energy. He was taking a shot at the Barmy Army with his trumpet signs to the stands. I love it. I just think we don’t have enough characters in the game and when we have someone like Virat Kohli doing just that… just kind of mimicking the crowd… trying to get his own supporters going,”
“When he came out after lunch, he was getting them going… it was like he was at the end of the long jump there in the Olympics trying to get the crowd going. He’s an amazing character. He gave a tactical masterclass on how to win a Test match.”
People who took exception to Kohli’s action are ‘boring’, he told Fox Cricket and pointed out that people like Kohli come once in a while. The last interesting character the former English skipper could think of is his commentary partner and former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne. There is no harm in Kohli being Kohli every once in a while, Vaughan added.
“Those who are complaining are just boring. They don’t understand entertainment. We’re in an entertainment industry where we need people like Kohli. We need characters. You go back to the 80s and 90s, there were characters and we worked with them. Shane Warne one of the great characters… absolute great; as mad as a box of frogs but you just know that you have a great character on the commentary box, on the field,” Vaughan further expressed.
“When you get someone like Virat Kohli who stands out because we are in an era where we don’t have a lot of characters,”
“He’s very prickly, he doesn’t like criticism. He’s always answering back to anyone who is criticising. Again, I like that. What he is doing with this Indian Test team is fantastic,” the former England skipper concluded.
Meanwhile, former Australia spinner Shane Warne has said that Virat Kohli has got the respect of the current Indian squad and that is the reason they all want to play for him and follow his lead.
The Virat Kohli-led side stormed to an emphatic 157-run win over England to take a 2-1 lead in the ongoing five-match series. Indian bowlers delivered big time on the last day of the fourth Test at the Kennington Oval on Monday as the genius of mercurial Jasprit Bumrah, and all-around performance by Shardul Thakur in the match helped visitors in defeating England by 157 runs to gain a 2-1 in the five-match series.