Captain Virat Kohli on Monday slammed media reports of a rift with his deputy Rohit Sharma while addressing the media before the Indian team leaves for USA and West Indies in Mumbai.
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But, Kohli claimed that everything was fine in the team and said, "if the atmosphere in the team is not well, the team would not have been so consistent so far. We have climbed from no. 7 to no. 1. This cannot be done without the camaraderie between the players."
There have been speculations of a fallout between Kohli and Rohit Sharma, with the rumours doing extra rounds in the aftermath of India's semi-final exit in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Kohli insisted that his relationship with Rohit is fine. “We’ve had no issues. If I don’t like somebody, it shows on my face. I have also heard a lot in past few days, but if team atmosphere wasn’t good, we couldn’t have played well,” Kohli said.
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On Sunday, reports emerged that there will be no pre-departure press conference. And it became a part of the 'rift' narrative which was gaining a lot of press after Rohit unfollowed Anushka Sharma -- Kohli's wife -- on Instagram.
The Bollywood actor then posted a cryptic story, which many believe was aimed at Rohit. “A wise man once said nothing. Only truth can shake hands with silence in a mess of false appearances,” it read.
Then there were reports of one of the senior players refusing one of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) members' request to post an "all's well" message on social media.
Kohli further talks about the rift, saying "it is absolutely baffling and ridiculous to read such rumours about the rift. The focus has shifted from the play. People are creating this stuff on the outside. We are senior players. People are creating lies and fantasies about the dressing room. It is disrespectful. I don't think there's anything very alarming about where the Indian team is placed."
India will take on the West Indies in three T20Is, three ODIs, and two Test matches.
Following are the squads for West Indies tour:
T20Is: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, and Navdeep Saini.
ODIs: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed and Navdeep Saini.
Tests: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk) Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav.
