South African skipper Faf du Plessis was, on 22 November, fined 100 per cent of his fee after being charged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for applying an artificial substance to the ball during the fourth day's play in the second Test against Australia in Hobart.

As funny as it seems, the substance eventually turned out to be Du Plessis' mint-laced saliva which couldn't have possibly altered the condition of the ball. While the entire Du Plessis episode beggared belief, it was apparently good enough for a British tabloid to dig up footage of Virat Kohli from the first Test at Rajkot where the Indian captain was seen doing something similar.

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In Du Plessis' case, the South African skipper was reported by the on-field umpires and subsequently charged by the ICC. However, Kohli's incident was not reported. More importantly, the Rajkot Test ended on 13 November and if the Alastair Cook-led side had any complaints, they should have made it official by 18 November.

As per the ICC regulations on ball-tampering, a team can only lodge a complaint against a rival team or its player in this regard within five days of the completion of the Test match. So why would England wait for nine-odd days to bring it to the attention of the ICC? It surely beats our understanding.

So ultimately, the ICC - having attracted a lot of backlash for the Du Plessis saga - eventually quashed the allegations of ball-tampering leveled against the Indian Test captain. But, apparently, the ICC's decision didn't go down well for the British media as one of their scribes brought the incident back into light during a pre-match media conference on 25 November.

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Kohli, who was addressing the media ahead of the third Test in Mohali, was asked about the footage showing him applying saliva to the ball while chewing on mint. And, the Delhi lad replied with authority while pointing out what it meant to be poor losers.

“I think it’s just to take the focus away from the series to be honest. It happened in Australia when South Africa won the series. I’m surprised the issue of what I’ve been told came up in Rajkot but there was no mention until the result in Vizag,” he said.

“To me a newspaper article doesn’t matter over the decision of ICC. We as cricketers respect that only. And allegations and speculations? I don’t read newspapers so I’m not aware of these things, someone told me and I laughed it off. Some people are trying to take the focus away from the series — good luck to them. But we’re totally focussed on what we have to do,” he added firmly.

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But the British scribe was apparantely not happy and probed further, "You doing what Du Plessis was doing?" To which Kohli posed a counter-query: "What was I doing?"

"If I was doing something, ICC would have spoken to me," the Indian batting sensation shut the Brit journo once and for all. Now, that's a cricketer who doesn't just look in control, but also sounds like one.