Virat Kohli with team mates Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav at the award ceremony after winning the series against Australia on the 4th day of last match at HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, March 28. (Manvender Vashist/PTI)

It is good to know that our boys are giving the Aussies an earful with Virat Kohli, who unfortunately could not play in the series winning Dharamshala test due to shoulder injury, leader of the sledging pack. Kohli must be doing a tremendous job of getting under the skin of the visitors as the biased Aussie media has compared him to Donald Trump. I follow Virat on Instagram, writes Siddharth Srivastava. – @Siliconeer #Siliconeer #India #Australia #Cricket #ViratKohli #BCCI #CricketAus @ViratKohli @BCCI @CricketAustralia #SteveSmith @imVKohli #TeamIndia

I have been following the India-Australia test series the way many do nowadays. An open tab automatically refreshes the score. Occasionally, I watch a video that appears on my Facebook news feed. It’s sad. BCCI is trying its best to revive Test cricket by choosing newer and smaller venues where they hope the purist fans of the game will arrive in hordes to watch Cheteshwar Pujara surpass Rahul Dravid by facing more than 500 balls in one innings which in itself is equivalent to more than two T20 matches.

No doubt Pujara’s innings was great, but some writing habits do die hard. Pujara “slams” a double century almost sounds like inappropriate behavior towards the English language and an insult to Virendra Sehwag. Still, I do not get BCCI’s strategy of trying to revive Test cricket in Dharamshala and Ranchi. Next venue could be Jim Corbett Park hoping some deer, jumbos and tigers will be interested in ball hitting bat and an occasional single.

Indians do not watch Test cricket anymore as they do not have so much time, period. We want to pursue other interests such as getting ahead in life or else Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not be under so much of pressure to deliver on jobs and employment. Plus there are the shorter formats of the game, packaged and pulsating. Competition and choice is always healthy, which is sadly missing in Indian politics presently with Modi on a rampage like the West Indies of the 80s.

Still, it is good to know that our boys are giving the Aussies an earful with Virat Kohli, who unfortunately could not play in the series winning Dharamshala test due to shoulder injury, leader of the sledging pack. Kohli must be doing a tremendous job of getting under the skin of the visitors as the biased Aussie media has compared him to Donald Trump. I follow Virat on Instagram.

Indian skipper Virat Kohli being greetd by Australian captain Steve Smith at HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, March 28, for winning the 4th test match and the series. India reclaimed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by winning the 4th Test and the series 2-1. (Manvender Vashist/PTI)

He is a nice guy unless he is face-to-face with an Aussie player or Gautam Gambhir on the field. On Valentine’s Day he put up a very cute picture of Anushka Sharma, but for some reason deleted it shortly. On Women’s Day, he put up photos of his mom and Anushka, referring them as the two most important women in his life.

Unlike cricket, Virat, naturally, still needs to learn a bit more about handling the women in his personal space. It is not very wise to call your mom and wife/girlfriend the most important people in the same post publicly. You convey the message separately and surreptitiously, without the other in the picture. Virat is still young, rich and accomplished. He will definitely become proficient in managing his women, unless Karan Johar is his 3AM advisor.

The great Amitabh Bachchan, always measured and dignified, has Tweeted that comparing Virat to Trump is a compliment, which is not the way the Aussie media obviously sees it. For them Trump  is equivalent to some of Virat’s favorite vocabulary when he is in full (verbal) flow, namely, MC and BC. Of course, there are many here in India that do not like Trump as well. Leading the march are hordes of young IT professionals from Andhra who have witnessed their marriage prospects washed down the drain overnight. Thus, some analysts have compared Trump to our very own Yogi Adityanath drawing equivalence in their “bigoted” views about Muslims and single minded pursuit of “demagogic” and “divisive” politics. Extending this line of thinking would mean that the Aussies have actually said Virat is like Adityanath. Well, this is getting to be a bit confusing.

Anyway, Indians have shut the Aussies for good by winning the hard-fought test and series in Dharamshala, even without Virat. I was hoping that he would recover from his injury on time and also get back to form. I would then have switched on the TV to watch him bat. I do that every time, whether it is Test cricket, one-day or a T20 match. His skills are surreal, at a completely different level.