The Indian skipper Virat Kohli raised a lot of eyebrows after he took over the bowling duties during India’s warm-up match against Australia in Dubai on Wednesday. As the players came out to take against Australia, Virat Kohli handed over the captaincy duties for the day to Rohit Sharma.
As the game proceeded, Virat was handed the ball in the seventh over when Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith were at the crease for the Australian side. Kohli kickstarted his bowling spell with a great note, giving away just four runs from his opening over.
Later, Kohli was brought back in the 13th over of the game. And this time, Kohli went for eight runs with Marcus Stoinis hitting him for a boundary on one of his deliveries.
Here, watch him bowl his first over:
https://twitter.com/AniketK44558812/status/1450782013665923076?s=20
This was Virat Kohli’s first appearance with the ball for the Indian cricket team in the shortest format of the game, ever since India’s humilating defeat in the T20 World Cup semi-final against West Indies in 2016. During that game, it was Virat Kohli, who had provided team India with their first breakthrough in its attempt to defend a 192-run total.
Also, he ended the game with figures of 1/15 in 1.5 overs as West Indies romped home in a seven-wicket win. So far, Virat has bowled in 12 innings across 90 T20Is and has picked 4 wickets at an economy of 8.13.
Meanwhile, fans on social media were thrilled to watch Virat Kohli with the ball and came up with amazing reactions to the same. There were many who came up with hilarious tweets and memes and started trolling Hardik Pandya and other bowlers.
Here, check out the reactions of Twitterati on this:
Hardik Pandya is not bowling, we don’t have a 6th bowling option#INDvsAUS
*Virat Kohli pic.twitter.com/2sMSKwbz0y
— Manoj Pareek (@mrpareekji) October 20, 2021
@hardikpandya7 Who?
India’s 6th Bowler In #T20WorldCup #IndvAus pic.twitter.com/QXxX8hJQlC— HARSHAD 2.0 (@im_Harshad15) October 20, 2021
So India’s 6th bowling option is going to be Virat Kohli not Hardik Pandya.#India #INDvsAUS
— Rishabh Singh (@Rishabh_rds94) October 20, 2021
https://twitter.com/loyalSachfan/status/1450783839916199944?s=20
Hardik Pandya is not bowling, we don’t have a 6th bowling option#INDvsAUS #viratkohli #TeamIndia
Meanwhile Virat Kohli : pic.twitter.com/L9Rn7RTOez
— Back Se First (@BackSeFirst) October 20, 2021
Commentators : #HardikPandya will bowl or #Thakur will replace pandya and will bowl…#ViratKohli be like : Hold my beer guys ? pic.twitter.com/40FB5vsd3D
— Tamil Viratians ? (@Tamil_Viratians) October 20, 2021
https://twitter.com/KingKohliGIF/status/1450775017457737738?s=20
It’s not easy to bash MITCHEL STARC until and unless you r VIRAT king KOHLI. pic.twitter.com/krrZBtadhN
— KRICOSOME (@KRICOSOME) October 20, 2021
#ViratKohli as bowler ?? pic.twitter.com/VfyxzmtGwM
— S H E L B Y (@Sobinbilla7) October 20, 2021