Indian captain Virat Kohli got out without scoring against Sri Lanka in their ICC Champions Trophy 2017, Group B contest at The Oval on Thursday. And soon, the Indian media put the blame on a certain Zainab Abbas.
Kohli, who was the major player for India in their thrashing of archrivals Pakistan last Sunday, failed to open his account today. And believe it or not, fans tended to blame Abbas, a cricket analyst associated with Pakistani news channel Dunya News, for the captain’s failure.
The fans believe that Abbas took a selfie with Kohli before the match. And proving their belief is the case of AB de Villiers. The South African skipper also got out for a duck yesterday, against Pakistan; yes, after posing for a selfie with Abbas.
Desperate as it may sound, but a Pakistani fan implored to Abbas to pose with Lankan captain Angelo Mathews ahead of Pak-SL match.
But Indian fans were not happy, and asked for a campaign to ban Abbas from the Indian camp.
Earlier in the day, put into bat, India set a 322-run target for Sri Lanka with Shikhar Dhawan posting his 10th ODI hundred. His opening partner Rohit Sharma and veteran MS Dhoni contributed with their respective fifties.
For Kohli, it was his 11th in ODIs, and first in 46 innings.
Last time Kohli got out without scoring in an ODI match was against England in August 2014 at Cardiff.