In addressing the on-field clashes during the Lord's Test match between India and England, which ended on Monday, former captain Mike Atherton dragged Virat Kohli into the discussion as he recalled his shoulder-barge episode during the tour of Australia last year. Atherton's comment came after ICC punished India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj for "provocative language and gesture" in his aggressive send off to England opener Ben Duckett on Day 4 of the Test match.
The incident occurred in the opening session on Sunday in London when Siraj aggressively celebrated Duckett's dismissal, and in his follow-through, made contact with Duckett when the batter was on his way back to the Lord's Long Room. Siraj was fined 15 per cent of his match fees and handed one demerit point.
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Addressing the situation in his column for The Times, Atherton called for balance — urging that while fiery passion is part of Test cricket's charm, physical confrontations like Kohli's shoulder barge or the Brydon Carse- Ravindra Jadeja clash should have no place on the field.
"Forgive me for degrading the report of a great match with this nonsense, but wouldn't spectators rather see players caring too much, rather than too little, about playing Tests. No one, of course, wants to see physical altercations on the field of play, or sustained nasty verbal abuse. There should be no place, for example, for the shoulder barge that Virat Kohli initiated in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last Christmas, when he diverted from his path to deliberately walk into Sam Konstas. In a match where there was plenty of spice and niggle, tempers flared as Carse and Jadeja collided mid-pitch, although the impact was entirely accidental, after Jadeja had deflected the ball towards third man, with both players ball-watching rather than minding each other's path," he wrote.
{{/usCountry}}"Forgive me for degrading the report of a great match with this nonsense, but wouldn't spectators rather see players caring too much, rather than too little, about playing Tests. No one, of course, wants to see physical altercations on the field of play, or sustained nasty verbal abuse. There should be no place, for example, for the shoulder barge that Virat Kohli initiated in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last Christmas, when he diverted from his path to deliberately walk into Sam Konstas. In a match where there was plenty of spice and niggle, tempers flared as Carse and Jadeja collided mid-pitch, although the impact was entirely accidental, after Jadeja had deflected the ball towards third man, with both players ball-watching rather than minding each other's path," he wrote.
{{/usCountry}}The Kohli incident had taken place on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test in December last year, when the former India captain had deliberately walked up to Australia batter Sam Konstas and bumped his shoulder, which was followed by a heated exchange between the two.
Despite his act, Kohli escaped major sanctions after the ICC announced that he had accepted a fine worth 20 per cent of his match fee.
Atherton also drew parallels between the Lord's Test match and England historic ICC World Cup win six years back at the very same venue.
"Six years ago to the day, Lord's had witnessed the most remarkable finish to any cricket match, when the World Cup final was decided on a boundary countback after a Super Over. Now the game delivered an extraordinary finish again, with two of the protagonists from that day, Stokes and Jofra Archer, taking centre stage," Atherton remarked.