Former India allrounder Irfan Pathan was forced to face the fans' wrath after he commented on top India batsman Virat Kohli's tame and early dismissal on his return to domestic cricket after a gap of more than 12 years.
Playing for Delhi against Railways, the former India captain had come under severe scrutiny after a poor series in Australia where he repeatedly got out edging behind balls bowled way outside the off-stump.
On Friday, the 36-year-old Kohli was bowled while attempting an expansive drive off Railways pacer Himanshu Sangwan as he failed to account for the inward movement of the ball and paid the price. His innings lasted 23 minutes and yielded six runs off 15 balls.
Commenting on Kohli's dismissal and that for other Indian stars like Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant, whose return to Ranji Trophy following a disappointing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series failed to yield many runs, Pathan said returning to domestic cricket is quite challenging.
Indian domestic cricket, especially with the red ball, presents unique challenges. These tend to come up during the winter months. The pitches have more in them, and bowlers you’ve never faced can really surprise you.
In northern India, the black soil alters how the pitch behaves, while the same bowler in the west of India might test you in a whole new way. You can score runs or get out, but there’s much more to it than that. This is exactly why I’ve been advocating for current Indian players to spend as much time as they can playing domestic cricket.
This resulted in some ardent Kohli fans wading into Pathan, questioning him for not making the same point when Rohit Sharma failed in his Ranji Trophy return. Another fan called Irfan Pathan's comment as 'Mumbai lobby' at work, forgetting that Pathan is from Baroda and never played for Mumbai.
Bro is posting about Virat as if another big player had scored a hundred! Bro, it’s fine, he’ll regain form in England. But if you post this specifically, who will even listen? It’s all the Mumbai lobby.
Kohli's dismissal also led some internet trolls to target Himanshu Sangwan, the bowler who took his wicket. This also led to a hilarious situation as some fans trolled and wrote abusive comments to the timeline of a Himanshu Sangwan, not the Railways bowler, but random persons with the same name.
Virat Kohli's fans are abusing our own cricketer, Himanshu Sangwan, for taking Kohli's wicket. In the future, he will probably play for India, but the question is, has Kohli become bigger than the country? The best thing is he is not the same Himanshu Sangwan.
Some fans did not like the fact that Railways bowler Himanshu Sangwan exulted and celebrated with aggression after getting Kohli out. That led to many random persons with the same name facing their ire on the internet.
