A little more than a week before the start of the 2023 season the Indian Premier League (IPL) former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli caught up with his friend and former IPL teammate AB de Villiers on the latter's YouTube channel 'The 360 Show'. The two, who played for RCB together for 11 seasons forming one of the most iconic batting pairs ever in T20 cricket, had a fun conversation where they touched upon topics from recent cricket to some "controversial" admission.
The latter was made by the former India skipper on his compatriot Cheteshwar Pujara when asked to pick the worst runner between the wickets he has ever come across. It's a "controversial one" admitted Kohli as he smiled through the entire admission while De Villiers was left in splits.
Kohli explained his point by recalling the 2018 tour of South Africa where Pujara was dismissed in both the innings of the match in Centurion. While the then India captain didn't read much into the dismissal in the first innings, he was startled by watching the replay of the run out dismissal in the second innings.
“It was a Centurion Test match on the tour of 2018. He was run out in both the innings. Pujara was run-out in the first innings of Centurion Test and I said, ‘Its OK’, such things happen in cricket; Cheteshwar Pujara played a shot in the second innings and called Parthiv Patel for 3rd run, Pujara himself was running towards the danger end and he got run-out again and that too by a big margin. When the replay was showed there was no one on the screen, just Quinny taking the bails off. I was like you have run yourself in the first innings how can you be so brave to take on the quickest man on the field and then not be seen in the frame when the replay is shown. I was like my god. That is the worst call I have seen in my life," said Kohli.
{{/usCountry}}“It was a Centurion Test match on the tour of 2018. He was run out in both the innings. Pujara was run-out in the first innings of Centurion Test and I said, ‘Its OK’, such things happen in cricket; Cheteshwar Pujara played a shot in the second innings and called Parthiv Patel for 3rd run, Pujara himself was running towards the danger end and he got run-out again and that too by a big margin. When the replay was showed there was no one on the screen, just Quinny taking the bails off. I was like you have run yourself in the first innings how can you be so brave to take on the quickest man on the field and then not be seen in the frame when the replay is shown. I was like my god. That is the worst call I have seen in my life," said Kohli.
{{/usCountry}}Pujara had scripted an unwanted record with that dismissal in the second innings. He hand become the first Indian to be run out twice in the same Test match and the first ever batter in 18 years to incur it.
When asked to pick the best runner, Kohli, without hesitation, picked MS Dhoni.
“Of course, it’s not even a question. I’ve been asked this question before. AB has been by far the fastest I’ve run with between wickets. The only other guy who I had so much coordination and understanding with was MS (Dhoni),” Kohli said. “Now, I don’t know the speeds matching between the wickets. But him (AB) and MS, I would not even have to call. We hardly called.”