India coach Anil Kumble today categorically dismissed allegations of ball tampering levelled against skipper Virat Kohli by the British media, stating that he does not believe in "giving wind to such stories".
A British tabloid published footages of Kohli applying saliva to the ball during the first Test against England at Rajkot. However, there were no complains made by the visiting team or the match referee to the ICC within a window of five days, which is a must as per world cricket's governing body's clause.
The ICC has already said that it will not make any investigations as per rules.
"First of all, I don't want to react to any report that is there in the media. As far as I am concerned, neither the umpire nor the match referee ever came to us talking about it. We would certainly not like to give too much wind to the story," Kumble told mediapersons today clarifying his and the team's stand in the matter.
The legendary spinner said that he was not at all perturbed by what the British media has reported.
"There is nothing to worry about. People can allege and write whatever they want in the media. As far as we are concerned, none of our players were a part of such activity."
But in a veiled dig, Kumble also drew comparisons with the Faf du Plessis incident in Hobart which has led to the South African skipper being fined 100 per cent of his match fees, terming it a "mountain being made out of molehill".
"South Africa has played exceptional cricket to beat Australia 2-0 and for Faf du Plessis, to be told that ball tampering, it is very silly. It's making a mountain out of a molehill."
For the record, two days after being fined 100 per cent match fee, Du Plessis today struck a counter-attacking century against Australia in a dead rubber at Adelaide.
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Rahul had hurt his left shoulder while going for the big shot and getting out and Kumble hoped the youngster from his home town Bengaluru should be able to take part in the full course of the Test after having come out to field in the Australian second innings.
"He hurt his shoulder a little bit. He came off a little bit while he was batting. So we had to take care, this is more a precaution. He is ok now. He was back in the field for the last couple of overs. He should be okay. Tomorrow we have to see how he responds. Usually these kinds of injuries take 24 hours before it resurfaces. So we are hoping he will be fine."
Kumble rued the missed catches by his team which gave three lives to opposition captain Steven Smith to remain unbeaten on 59 at stumps.
"We would like to restrict them to as little as possible. We dropped a few catches. It has hurt us in the past, especially in this game you need to hold your chances even if half chances. We dropped Steve Smith on couple of occasions; that has certainly pushed us back. Hopefully tomorrow morning we can pick up a few early wickets and then put the pressure back on them."
While complimenting O'Keefe, he also felt that his Indian counterpart Ravindra Jadeja also beat the bat constantly but failed to take the edge of the bat.
"I think he bowled steady. He bowled consistently in good areas. Like I mentioned, there were a couple of soft dismissals, and that pushed us back. It was one of those days where we saw Jadeja bowl in the last session where probably every over he was beating the bat three times. It was one of those days where on another day, that could have all taken the edge.
