Virat Kohli paid tribute to the Indian domestic structure following his team’s win against Australia at the MCG to go 2-1 up in the series. Kohli was also responding to the uncharitable on-air comments made by former Australian cricketers Kerry O’Keefe and Mark Waugh.
“Our first-class cricket is amazing, which is why we won. Credit must go to first-class set-up in India, which challenges our fast bowlers in India, and that helps them abroad,” the India skipper said.
But it was clear that Kohli’s comments were meant for O’Keefe. Even, man of the match Bumrah (with a match haul of 9/86) mentioned the contribution of Ranji Trophy behind his success in Test cricket.
“We train very hard and we are used to bowling a lot of overs in Ranji cricket, so the body is doing well,” Bumrah said after India beat Australia by 137 runs in the third Test here.
It all started on the first day of the match when O’Keefe made a crass comment about debutant Mayank Agarwal’s first-class triple-hundred against Railways.
“Apparently, he got the triple (ton) against the Railways canteen staff,” O’Keefe said while commentating for Fox Sports while Mark Waugh spoke about how a domestic average of 50 in India will be 40 in Australia.
It was India coach Ravi Shastri, not the one to pull back punches, rubbed it in after Agarwal scored 76 on his debut.
“He (Mayank) has got a message for Kerry ‘when you do open your canteen, he wants to come and smell the coffee. He wants to compare it to the ones back in India coffee here’s better or the ones back home’,” Shastri commented during an interview with Fox Sports, with O’Keefe also on air at that point of time.