Former South Africa captain Dean Elgar has claimed that former India captain Virat Kohli once ‘spat’ on him during a Test series.
Elgar said that the incident happened during the first Test at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali during South Africa’s tour of India in 2015. The four-match Test series was part of a lengthy series that also contained five ODIs and three T20Is.
After winning the first Test by 108 runs, India had gone on to sweep the series 3-0 with one match being drawn.
“Those wickets were jokes. Like playing on that… that surface there. And I came into bat and I was actually like holding my own against (Ravichandran) Ashwin and what’s his name Jeja (Ravindra Jadeja) (smiles) and Kohli, he like spat at me,” Elgar said on “Banter, with The Boys” podcast.
“I said to him if you do that, I’ll f*****g ***** you with this bat,” he added, using a South African profanity.
On being asked if Kohli knew the meaning of the word, Elgar replied: “Yes, he did because de Villiers was his teammate at RCB, so he understood. And I said if you do that, I’ll … on this field, I’ll absolutely knock you out. And then [he said] ‘Hey F*** you, F*** you’ (mimicking the Indian) but barking up the wrong tree yeah. Anyways, we are in India so you got to be a little bit cautious.”
Elgar said that when de Villiers found out that Kohli had spat on Elgar, he had asked Kohli: “Why are you spitting at my teammate?”
Elgar said that two years after the incident, when India toured South Africa in 2017-18, Kohli had approached him to apologise.
“Two three years later, Kohli pulled me aside and said ‘listen, can we go and have a drink after the series I want to apologise for my actions’. So we drank till 3 in the morning. This is when he used to drink,” he concluded
Elgar announced his retirement from international cricket earlier this month, with his last game played at the Newlands in Cape Town. Elgar was actually asked to captain South Africa in his final Test since Temba Bavuma was missing due to injury. However, India won the second Test to level the series 1-1.