Virat Kohli had to step in and make Ishant aware to not do something silly.
India pacer Ishant Sharma was among the most famous cricket memes back in 2017. The reason was his funny face to mock Australian captain Steve Smith during a Test match against Australia in Bengaluru.
It was the morning session of day two when Ishant tried to rile up the then Australia captain with a bit of sledging. In his attempt to unsettle Smith, Ishant made weird faces. India skipper Virat Kohli couldn't stop laughing after seeing the unusual sledge between the two competitors.
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"It was a close game, people tend to do things when swayed by emotions, you do anything to upset the batsman, whatever I could do to upset him, I did that. Smith upsets the bowlers a lot, we know if we dismissed him, then we could go on to win the match," Ishant said, recalling the incident on 'Open Nets with Mayank' on BCCI.tv.
"I was just trying to upset him and was thinking how to do it, I was just trying to get him out of his comfort zone. I was trying to make him uncomfortable," he added.
Kohli made sure Ishant doesn't do anything silly and gets banned. "Virat is an aggressive captain, he loves it whenever you show aggression, he said nothing. He always says do whatever you want to but make sure you don't get banned," Ishant said.
When asked if he would do it again on the upcoming tour to Australia, the lanky pacer said, "I am at a stage where I am looking to enjoy my cricket, I am enjoying my cricket, I am more focused to take wickets and win the match for India."