Irfan Pathan and former cricket players Sanjay Manjrekar got into a furious altercation about Yashasvi Jaiswal's appalling run-out during Friday's Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Manjrekar maintained that Kohli made a "schoolboy error" by focusing on the ball rather than his partner, while Pathan believed Jaiswal was incorrect to call for a run after hitting the ball crisply to mid-on.
India was batting in their first innings to reply to Australia’s total of 474. After Rohit Sharma made 3 and KL Rahul scored 24 runs, when Virat Kohli joined Yashasvi Jaiswal and the duo added 102 runs for the 4th wicket.
From there, India lost three wickets for six runs, allowing Australia to roar back into the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. India finished the day on 164/5 at stumps on day two.
Exploring the incident between Jaiswal and Kohli, Irfan Pathan and Sanjay Manjrekar got into a heated argument on live TV.
Pathan and Manjrekar's argument revolved over Jaiswal's run-out and whether Virat Kohli might have done more to stop it. At mid-on, Jaiswal smashed the ball directly to Pat Cummins and took off.
Kohli didn't seem interested in the run, even though he called for it. He continued to look at the ball. Jaiswal would not have continued if Kohli had not said no, but in the end, India suffered a terrible communication that lost them a wicket and more against the flow of play.
Pathan and Manjrekar got into a heated argument during the run-out, and before you knew it, things had gotten out of hand.
Here's the conversation:
Manjrekar: "At the other end was Virat Kohli and we tend to think a little more from his side. It was a schoolboy error from Kohli to look behind and decide that there was no run. The call is not for the non-striker to make. It always belongs to the batter who has played the ball. If Jaiswal had made a bad call then he would have suffered because Cummins would have gone for the non-striker end. But since Kohli said no, Yashasvi had no chance. This is what my take on the matter is."
Pathan: "There is another truth of cricket that if the ball is played at point, the non-striker is the one to make a call. And the striker is at full liberty to turn it down. He can also say no sometimes."
Manjrekar: "But Irfan, here you are talking about point…"
Following this, chaos ensued since neither Pathan nor Manjrekar were prepared to hear or agree with the other's viewpoint.
Lastly, Manjrekar could be heard saying: "If you don't want to listen, there isn't much left here," before he took a sly dig at Pathan. "I think the time has come for a new coaching manual to be released, which will have Irfan Pathan's version of running between the wicket".
Here is the conversation:
