Keep your cool !
No series against the Aussies is complete without its share of sledging and verbal wars. It has been evident in these matches too but the social media went into a overdrive after Ishant Sharma made a peculiar face at rival captain Steve Smith.
India and Australia are involved in a rather attritional Test series currently with both teams not ready to give away an inch, easily.
This and the Indian captain Virat Kohli's sledging of young opener Matt Renshaw dominated proceedings on day two of the ongoing Bengaluru Test. However, former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi is not quite amused at what many perceive as light-hearted banter between Ishant and Smith.
Ishant's picture has been a source of multiple internet memes on a day when rival sides had a go at each other. Rival captains Kohli and Smith also engaged in a war of words.
Bedi in his own inimitable way termed making faces as ugly stuff and wrote on Twitter: “As it is verbal banters r bad enough-now they r getting ‘facial' too-all very ugly stuff-Crkt cn do w/out!Let contest btw bat/ball flourish!”
Meanwhile, wicket-keeping great Ian Healy says he is “losing respect” for Kohli for his constant sledging of the Australians in the ongoing second cricket Test but other former Aussie players saw it differently.
Healy said Kohli disrespected Australia and the Indian captain should tone down his trademark on-field aggression. He also said that Kohli's confrontational attitude is putting pressure on his teammates.
Former Australian player Simon Katich, however, has a totally different assessment. He felt neither side crossed the line while the tension was understandable considering the magnitude of the series between the two top-ranked Test sides.
Healy felt Kohli's actions was putting unwanted pressure on his own players. Katich, however, said that both Kohli and his counterpart Smith handled a tense situation of a vital Test with aplomb. There has been a lot of debate about sledging and where a line has to be drawn.
In such high-profile games, a bit of needle is the norm but it should be said that the series so far has been played in good spirit and on-field action has taken centre stage.
