Virat Kohli Silences Trolls, Defends Mitchell Starc In Throwback Moment

The Australian star bowler Mitchell Starc has announced his retirement from the T20I format, targeting to focus more on Test cricket and the ODI World Cup 2027. Back in January 2019, fans were surprised when the legendary Indian player Virat Kohli came in support of Starc. At that time the Australian player faced a lot of criticism from everyone for his inconsistent form during the test series against India.

At that time he took a total of 13 wickets in seven innings at an average of 34.53, which was the worst of his career. Shane Warne, the legend, also questioned about his form and body language, and slowly-slowly the criticism went on to another level. The thing which went in his favor was that his captain, Tim Paine, defended him after Australia lost 2-1 at home.

VIRAT KOHLI IN SUPPORT OF MITCHELL STARC

Meanwhile, when all this critcism and trolling hit Mitchell Starc, the then Indian Test Captain Virat Kohli came in support of him. Starc and Kohli played with each other in IPL for Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Speaking about his former teammate, Kohli stated that he was surprised by the level of criticism directed at Starc.

Kohli said,

"He is a very skillful bowler. He has got the right mindset. He has been your No.1 bolwer for years now. I am a little surprised with the magnitude of the criticism that has come to him. If he is your best bowler, you give him space to work things out and not mount more pressure on him. Because you don't want to lose a guy like that who is so skilled and wins games."

The legendary Indian batter further stated that Australia's bowling lineup had no problem instead, the Indian batting order handled them well.

He said,

"I wouldn't say they bowled badly, I would look at it as we have batted well. They have always bowled in areas which are challenging to you as a batsman. I mean Cummins bowled a spell to me and (Cheteshwar) Pujara, about nine overs in Adelaide, we hardly got eight runs in that spell. So we just played it out well. I think their bowling has been absolutely fine from where I see it."

These kinds of words at that time shocked the entire cricket fraternity, as the two had exchanged heated words on the cricket field multiple times.