Virat Kohli loves batting in white shoes

When I bat, it's my zone and time to be absolutely close to myself and perform, said Kohli

New Delhi: Even Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli has a superstition.
“I love playing in white shoes, batting specially. It’s more of a superstition for me,” Kohli told Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City boss, during an Instagram live session.

“When I bat, it’s my zone and time to be absolutely close to myself and perform,” said the 31-year-old, who made his international debut in 2008.

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Kohli also asked Guardiola about him switching colours of his shoes during his playing days. To which the Manchester City boss replied: “When I was playing, all the shoes were black. Now to find a black boot is so difficult. One day when I wore red boots, my mentor and the best manager Johan Cruyff saw it and made me change back into black boots.”

Guardiola further revealed that football matches being held without fans during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic feel like “friendly games”. “Without people it’s not the same. It feels like a friendly game. We must do it, the show must go on! We need the people to come back to the stadiums when everything is safe,” said the 49-year-old.

“It feels very different without them. We miss the fans. Playing closed behind the scenes is weird,” he added.

Kohli, who has so far played 86 Tests, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is, is currently leading Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) being played across three venues sans fans in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Meanwhile, Kohli has suggested that captains in T20 cricket should be given the authority to review wide ball and waist-height no-ball calls from on-field umpires. “As a captain, I would like to have the ability to review a wide which could be a wrong call or a waist high full toss which could be a wrong call,” Kohli told KL Rahul during an Instagram chat session on Wednesday.

“Historically, we’ve seen how these small things can affect the game in a fast paced T20 format and high-profile tournaments like IPL,” he added.

Kohli’s comments come in the aftermath of a controversy involving MS Dhoni during Chennai Super Kings’ match against SunRisers Hyderabad in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

During the 19th over of SRH’s chase of 168 on Tuesday evening, both Dhoni and bowler Shardul Thakur expressed their disappointment after umpire Paul Reiffel stretched his arms to signal a wide being faced by Rashid Khan. Following Dhoni’s miffed gesture, the umpire then seemed to change his mind and decided not to call the wide.

Reiffel put his arms down looking at CSK captain’s reaction, and declared it as a fair delivery.