Virender Sehwag thrashes English media for alleging Virat Kohli of ball-tampering

Recently, English tabloid Daily Mail had claimed that Indian skipper Virat Kohli had used a sweet in his mouth to shine the ball during the first Test against England at Rajkot. However, Virender Sehwag feels that these are just excuses after facing a defeat in the second Test at Visakhapatnam.

“The team that ends on the losing side often tries to raise a few issues.

“Perhaps the England team hasn’t gone on to do it (raise the issue) but the English media has. I feel one should accept defeats in a graceful manner. We never gave excuses when we lost matches abroad. We used to accept that we didn’t play well when we lost a game,” Sehwag told Hindustan Times.

The allegation against Kohli came at a time when South African captain Faf du Plessis was found guilty of ball-tampering during the second Test against Australia. Du Plessis had allegedly used mint to tamper with the ball which has led to him being fined by the ICC. However, Sehwag has backed Du Plessis claiming he has done nothing wrong.

“Faf shouldn’t be bothered about this as he did nothing wrong. You’re allowed to have toffees, lollies, etc. and you’re also allowed to apply saliva to shine the ball.

“So I really don’t know what’s wrong with that. It’s not like someone is applying something else other than saliva,” Sehwag explained.