Shekhar Gupta schools Harsha Bhogle for his comments on Indian team in Australia

The Indian men’s cricket team is currently out on the tour of Australia, where they have impressed the spectators with some brilliant teamwork, as well as their resilient attitude against the Australian sledging. Even though things aren’t going well for them in the 2^nd test as of now, Team India still has the upper hand over the Australians, owing to their first test victory at Adelaide.

Into this scenario, popular cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted about the controversial catch, which had unceremoniously dismissed the Indian skipper Virat Kohli when he looked all set to steer India out of trouble. He criticized the Indian skipper for his approach, with back to back tweets, as shown below :

For those unaware, Virat Kohli was batting on an impressive score of 123, and India was on 251 with a loss of 6 wickets. It was then that Pat Cummins delivered a ball which forced Virat to take a risky shot, and it was caught by Peter Handscomb within no time. What made it controversial was the fact that Handscomb had caught the ball when it had almost touched the ground.

This controversial dismissal reminded many of the controversial series of 2007-08, where several Indian batsmen were wrongfully dismissed by umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson on such dubious parameters. Not the one to take such dismissals lying down, Virat Kohli appealed for a review, but in vain. It was for this very attitude that Harsha Bhogle criticized Virat Kohli, in a fashion that not many fans would love to appreciate.

However, one man came up surprisingly to defend Virat Kohli’s aggressive approach. Columnist and owner of ‘ThePrint’, Shekhar Gupta, came to Virat Kohli’s defense, posting the following tweet in reply to Harsha Bhogle’s criticism :

In this tweet, not only did Shekhar Gupta lambast Harsha Bhogle for his criticism of Virat Kohli’s approach, but he also advised him to stop being bogged down by the Australian tactics, reminding him of how India stopped being affected by the Australian sledging ever since Saurav Ganguly and his team last toured Australia in 2003-04.

Surprised by Shekhar’s tweet, Harsha Bhogle tried to come up with a weak defense, as he posted the following tweet :

However, Shekhar was is no mood for fun, as he posted the following tweet :

This is not the first time that Shekhar Gupta has surprised people with his rational tweets. Criticized otherwise for being ultra critical of the current NDA government, while sporting a soft corner for the Nehru Gandhi dynasty, Shekhar Gupta does have his fair share for rational tweets. Who can forget the way he lambasted the Congress social media head ‘Divya Spandana’ for insulting PM Modi’s visit to the Statue of Unity?

Interestingly, quite recently, he also shared posts on Twitter that lambasted Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi for his ‘racist views’ on the Black Africans, such as one as shown below :

As such, it is rather welcoming that Shekhar Gupta had schooled Harsha Bhogle for being ultra defensive in his approach towards the controversial decision, and we sincerely hope that he keeps posting such sane tweets more regularly.