Watching his name being linked to Virat Kohli’s captaincy resignation, veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has finally broken his silence on the matter and described it as “fake news”.

A couple of days ago, some of the media houses published a report claiming that the off-spinner was 'not happy' with Virat Kohli and had reached out to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah) with a complaint about the skipper.  

The report further added that Ashwin had raised concerns about insecurity within the team. 

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Instead of getting angry over these serious allegations, Ashwin took a unique approach to get his message across.  

Rather than launching a direct attack, the Delhi Capitals spinner took a sarcastic dig and pulled up news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) for publishing fake news, pitting him against Kohli.                      

Ashwin reacts to IANS Media Report claiming Ashwin was the one who made complaint on Kohli captaincy @ashwinravi99 @imVkohli pic.twitter.com/FaKRjSXfju

“I am searching for the handle called “Fake News”, it used to be super fun for Gossip,” Ashwin wrote on his Instagram stories. 

“Ohh yeah!! Thank you guys. Found Them: I just heard they have renamed themselves and are now called IANS and some others take quotes from them too. Super Fun,” he added. 

The IANS had reported that Ashwin 'wasn’t happy' with Kohli because he had questioned him for not showing enough intent in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton in June this year. 

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Ashwin is not the only Indian cricketer who has been accused of complaining against Kohli, a report in the New Indian Express had claimed that the batting duo of Ajinkya Rahane and Chetewshwar Pujara had dialled Jay Shah and complained about Kohli after their fallout with the skipper in the dressing room after India had suffered an eight-wicket loss in the WTC final.

While these two players have yet to respond to the allegations, the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal has rubbished all such reports and said that no Indian cricketer has complained about Kohli by any medium. He even urged the media houses to “stop writing rubbish” as it affects the atmosphere within the team.

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“The media must stop writing this rubbish. Let me say this on the record that no Indian cricketer has made any complaint to the BCCI - written or verbal. The BCCI can't keep answering every false report that keeps appearing. The other day, we saw some reports saying there will be changes in India's World Cup squad. Who said that?” Dhumal told The Times of India.

Ashwin was one of the better performers for Team India in the WTC final, picking up two wickets each in both innings. So, it’s to believe that Kohli would have confronted him for showing a lack of intent in the game. 

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As far as Pujara and Rahane are concerned, they are not part of India’s limited-overs set-up. Hence, whoever is saying that Kohli gave up his T20 captaincy because he had a fallout with them only makes those people look stupid.

Moreover, in a couple of week’s time, Team India will start its T20 World Cup campaign in the United Arab Emirates and if we want our team to go all the way in the tournament we shouldn’t pay much heed to these reports and get behind our players.

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