India vs Australia: From Brain fade toilet break, the top quotes from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy

The 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was one of the most intensely fought Test series in recent times, with both the cricket and banter being action-packed. There was sharp bowling and sharper sledges, fierce innings and fiercer insinuations, accolades and accusations, all freely flowing across the four-Test series. While the verbal duels made the cricketing duels no less fascinating, the bad blood did cast a shadow over the contest.

But on the bright side, the series also gave us some memorable quotes to both outrage and laugh over. From the first day of the series in Pune – when Matt Renshaw provided some inadvertent humour to what was going to be a fierce contest, to the penultimate day in Dharamsala, which saw Ravindra Jadeja indulge in some witty words, to all the mud-slinging in between.

In a series that saw almost as many beamers thrown in the press conference as on the pitch, here are the quotes that stood out, in no particular order. However, it should be unanimously agreed that “brain fade” was the phrase of the series.

When Steve Smith added ‘brain fade’ to cricket fans’ vocab

“I got hit on the pad and looked down to Petey [Handscomb, the non striker] and he said ‘look up there’ and I turned around and said, ‘what do you reckon?’ It was a bit of a brain fade on my behalf and I shouldn’t have done that.” – Steve Smith on the start of the DRS-gate controvery that plagued the rest of the series.
“I referred Smudga [Smith] to look at the box... My fault and was unaware of the rule.” – Peter Handscomb shoulders the blame for the ‘Dressing Room Referral System’ controversy.
“There is a line that you don’t cross on the cricket field – sledging and playing [like the opponents] is different. I don’t want to mention the word, but it falls into that bracket. I would never do something like that on the cricket field.” Asked by a journalist if the word he was referring to was “cheating”, Kohli said, “I didn’t say that. You did.” – Virat Kohli’s vociferous response to Smith’s “brain fade”.
“We haven’t got any elaborate sign system and when he [Smith] did do that it was quite a surprise to us. To be fair, if we have got this sign system then we got it wrong quite horribly, twice, with [David] Warner and [Shaun] Marsh.” – Australia’s assistant coach David Saker defends Smith.

Kohli was the centre of some of the best quips...

“Look I am not sure he [Kohli] knows how to spell the word [sorry].” – Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland, when asked if the Indian captain should apologise after his allegations against Australians misusing DRS.
“He is the head of the snake, to put it in Dale Steyn’s terms, and if you can take that, the body will fall away. It was pretty pleasing to take Virat’s wicket.” – Nathan Lyon on India’s supposed dependence on Kohli.
“We know he’ll [Kohli] come back bigger and stronger, but he’s one I’ll take over [Cheteshwar] Pujara at the moment.” – Mitchell Starc wasn’t happy with only Pujara’s wicket.
“He [Rahane] is probably a bit more chilled out, out on the field. Probably, not quite as emotional.” – Smith had comparisons to draw after Ajinkya Rahane was set to captain India in the fourth Test.

...And he gave it back

“These things [criticism] don’t matter. I have always said what I wanted, I don’t have regrets.” – Virat Kohli on the variety of potshots the Australian media took at him, including comparing him to Donald Trump.
“Some people want to create some spice sitting at some part of the world. They don’t confront such situations themselves. The easiest thing to do is to just sit at home and write a blog or speak, but to go out there and bowl and bat is different.” – Virat Kohli on his detractors after winning the series
The thing I said before the first Test, I have certainly been proven wrong and you won’t hear me say that ever again.” – Virat Kohli when asked if he could consider Australian players as friends after this series.

Pujara got his fair share of attention as well

“I think it’s really sad to hear such comments [on Kohli]. I think the focus has shifted somewhere else, which shouldn’t have happened. We are very much focused on the game.” – Cheteshwar Pujara had his sights set on the target.
“The way Pujara was batting it never seemed we would lose a wicket. Puji has so much patience. He scores 200-300 in domestic cricket almost routinely. He is always on the top of his game. He showed great patience here. He was losing partners at the other end, and we were not getting really big partnerships. He curtailed his shots, trying to build big partnerships.” – Wriddhiman Saha on the partnership with Pujara en route his mammoth knock off 525 balls.
“Pujara has the game for it. He takes a lot pressure. His game is such that you can depend on him and play your natural game.” – Murali Vijay had more praise for Pujara.

Banter, more banter

“[The on-field banter has] probably come a lot more from their side than ours.” – Mitchell Starc claimed the Aussies were overshadowed in the sledging department.
“If you will start it…I will give it back to you,” Jadeja was heard telling Wade. “I just told him [Mathew Wade], once you lose and are free, we will have dinner together,” Jadeja told reporters later.
“If there’s anything called momentum, it’s with us at the moment. India coming today would have expected to bowl us out. I’m sure they’re hurting a little bit in their change room.” Steve Smith was sharp with more than just the bat this series.
“Can we move on (from all the pitch questions)? It’s only 22 yards, it can’t be very different. We didn’t adapt well, we lost.” – Anil Kumble’s take on the pitch debate that clouded the initial half of the series
“I don’t need to respond, not anymore. It’s just a rule of the cricketing world, you keep everything off the field [but] that’s up to themselves. From our point of view we’ll never do that. They came out and said they don’t sledge, I think it’s just banter. You don’t take much notice of it.” – David Warner on being indifferent to sledging.
“When I went into bat, Pat Cummins was bowling. Warner was asking me if he was bowling too fast, so when I bowled the bouncer to Warner, I asked him if this was too fast.” Bhuvneshwar Kumar played one game, but didn’t miss out an opportunity to banter with his IPL teammate.
“Did you see the first wicket [of Warner]? That was not a chinaman. It was a flipper, which I learnt from Shane Warne. So learning from Warne and then getting out his country-mate is a nice feeling.” Kuldeep Yadav got cheeky after his dream debut in Dharamsala.

Finally, the best, purely cricketing quotes came from both captains after the Pune Test

“Coming to India, we haven’t won a game here in 4,502 days. I have been told those facts. So, it has been an incredibly long time. Guys have been excited by the opportunity to come and play here. We know it’s a great challenge and in this game the boys were up to the challenge.” – Steve Smith.
We got outplayed in this game. We have got to take it on the chin, accept that they outplayed us. It was our worst batting display in the last two years. We were not good enough on any of the three days. It was a case of us not applying ourselves too well. We need to see what we did wrong. – Virat Kohli