Video of Virat Kohli angry at trolls and haters of Mohammad Shami

India captain Virat Kohli has slammed the trolls and abuse that fast bowler Mohammed Shami faced on social media following India’s 10-wicket defeat to Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener last Sunday. Shami was India’s most expensive bowler on the night, with figures of 3.5-0-43-0, and his social-media accounts – particularly on Instagram – were subjected to large amounts of abuse, much of it targeting his religion.

Attacking someone over religion is pathetic – Kohli

“There’s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person,” Kohli said in Dubai, a day before India’s next fixture, against New Zealand.

“They hide behind their identities and go after people through social media, making fun of people and that has become a source of entertainment in today’s world, which is so unfortunate and 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.

“To me attacking someone over their religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that a human being can do. Everyone has the 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 a very sacred and personal thing to every human being and that should be left there.”

Shami has the support of whole squad – Kohli

“People take out their frustrations because they have no understanding of what we do as individuals – they have no understanding of how much effort we put on the field,” Kohli said. “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.

I mean, if people can overlook that and his passion for the country, I honestly 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.

We are backing 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, nothing can be shaken.

I can guarantee you that as the captain of the team, that we have built a culture where these things will not even infiltrate into this environment 0.0001%. That is an absolute guarantee from my side.”

Those who troll and abuse are cowards, lack compassion – Kohli

“We, as individuals, understand what we want to do on the field and the strength of character and mental toughness that we have and precisely doing what we are doing on the field,” he said. “None of these people are even in the vicinity to even imagine doing something like that.

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

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