Attacking someone over their religion the most pathetic thing to do: Virat Kohli

Team India skipper Virat Kohli has criticised all those who abused fast-bowler Mohammed Shami’s performance in the T20 World Cup 2021 encounter against Pakistan. Shami endured the toughest outing, finishing with figures of 0 for 43 in 3.5 overs. The pacer was attacked over his religion, which Kohli slammed as “the most pathetic thing that a human being can do”.

“Don’t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people”

“To me, attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing that a human being can do. Everyone has their right to voice their opinion and what they feel about certain situations, but I personally have never ever even thought of discriminating against anyone over their religion. That is very sacred and a personal thing to every human being and that should be left there. People take out their frustrations because they obviously don’t have an understanding of what we do as individuals, or how much effort we put on the field,” said Kohli in a press conference as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“They have no understanding of the fact that someone like Mohammed Shami has won India ‘n’ number of matches in the last few years and he’s been our primary bowler with Jasprit Bumrah when it comes to making an impact in games in Test cricket. If people can overlook that and his passion for the country, I don’t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people. Neither does Shami and neither does anyone else in the team. We stand by him fully and back him 200 percent and all those who have attacked him can come with more force if they want to. Our brotherhood, our friendship within the team, and nothing can be shaken. I can guarantee to you as the captain of the team that we have built a culture where these things will not infiltrate into the environment,” he added.

“We as individuals understand what we want to do on the field”

Kohli was extremely critical of the current social media culture. He termed the abuse that people give others through these platforms as “the lowest level of human potential that one can operate in.”

“There’s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not a bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person. They hide behind their entities and go after people through social media and making fun of people and that’s become a source of entertainment in today’s world which is so unfortunate and so sad to see because this is literally the lowest level of human potential that one can operate at and that’s how I look at these people. We as individuals understand what we want to do on the field and the strength of character and mental toughness we have is precisely why we are doing what we are doing on the field and none of these people are even in the vicinity to even imagine doing something like that,” he said.

“They don’t have the courage or the spine to do that. That is how I see this. And all this drama that’s created on the outside is purely based on people’s frustrations, their lack of self-confidence, their lack of compassion and hence they find it is so amusing to go after people,” added Kohli.