Katich dismisses Kohli and Jadeja media controversies as 'mind games', accuses Indian reporter of misquoting question

The atmosphere has been tense within the Indian camp following Ravichandran Ashwin's unexpected announcement of his retirement from international cricket. The spinner revealed his decision during a post-match press conference in Brisbane and has since returned to Chennai. Compounding the situation, a media incident involving former captain Virat Kohli has emerged, during which he expressed frustration towards Australian reporters. Upon arriving in Melbourne with his family, Kohli was reportedly photographed by media personnel at the airport. He subsequently urged the reporters not to take pictures of his family without their consent.

Then there has also been a media controversy surrounding Ravindra Jadeja, who left Australian journalists frustrated in Melbourne after he answered questions only in Hindi during a press interaction. The questions were asked in Hindi by the travelling journalists from India. There were also some Australian journalists present, but Jadeja only answered to the Indian journalists in Hindi and left. On confronting the BCCI official present, the Australian reporters were told that Jadeja had to leave for the team bus, which was getting delayed.

Channel 7 reported that the team media manager offered Akash Deep for a media interaction, but the pacer only knew Hindi and was unable to answer in English. The channel also reported that their reporter took the help of an Indian journalist to ask about ‘tensions’ in the India camp, which was misquoted as who had the ‘upper hand’ in the series.

Speaking to Channel 7, for whom he also works as a commentator, Australian coach and former cricketer Simon Katich labelled it as ‘mind games’ from the Indian camp. “Obviously, there’s been a few things unfolding in the last week or so, that haven’t gone down well at that camp. It’s probably just the mind games being played, given the enormity of this series,” he said.

“The media are here to promote the game and I don’t know what the Indians are thinking at the moment. That’s their problem,” he added.

Gautam Gambhir and his support staff will be hoping that the recent incidents don’t serve as a distraction for the Indian team, who are set to face Australia in the fourth Test in Melbourne, on December 26. The series is currently level at 1-1, with the Brisbane Test ending as a draw.