Kohli trashes ball tampering allegations

Ahead of the third cricket Test against England, India skipper Virat Kohli on Friday trashed a British tabloid's allegations that he tampered with the ball during the first Test at Rajkot.

Kohli said such reports do not matter as long as the International Cricket Council (ICC) does not find him committing any wrong during any game.

"This is just to take focus away from series. To me, newspaper article doesn't matter over ICC's decision," Kohli told scribes at the pre-match conference here.

"I don't read newspapers, was told five days later that such things happened, I just laughed it off."

The 28-year-old said he is happy with the way the controversial Decision Review System (DRS) has worked so far in the Test series, but felt its effectiveness cannot be gauged only after two Tests.

"DRS is one way to make sure that everyone knows the correct decision has been made or not," he said.

"I am pretty happy with it, it just confirms the decision of the on-field umpires and if you want to challenge the umpire, you actually have an option to check it again and figure out whether he was wrong or right. I think it's pretty fair for the game."

"In a span of two games, it's very little to judge how we have gone so far with the DRS. I can't analyse the process in a span of eight days, it's not something that going to drastically change."

"I think you need to analyse that over a period of 12 months as to how we have used it or how better we have become," he added.

Commenting on veteran stumper Parthiv Patel's inclusion in the squad after first choice keeper Wriddhiman Saha was ruled out due to strain in his leg, Kohli said: "Luckily, Parthiv's attitude has been great and I don't see any nerves from him. He's played enough cricket to understand this kind of situation."

"He has been performing consistently well in first class cricket, we are pretty excited to have him back in the side," he added.

After winning the second Test at Visakhapatnam by 246 runs, India will walk into the third game with a 1-0 lead.

--IANS

tri/vt