Ravichandran Ashwin on Thursday (January 29) hit back at a social media troll after the latter accused the former India spinner of indirectly targeting Virat Kohli while analyzing India's third T20I win over New Zealand in Guwahati.

Riding on brutal half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma (68* off 20) and skipper Suryakumar Yadav (57* off 26), India chased down a target of 154 in just 10 overs to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match T20I series.

In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Ashwin spoke about India's evolving batting approach in the shortest format, highlighting the shift from a conservative style to an explosive brand of cricket.

During the discussion, Ashwin recalled the 2024 T20 World Cup final against South Africa, where India scored 176 in 20 overs and emerged victorious by seven runs. He also commended Jasprit Bumrah's bowling and Suryakumar’s match-turning catch.

As Ashwin didn’t mention Kohli's crucial contribution of 76 in 59 balls during the final, a section of fans accused of him indirectly taking a dig at the star batter.

Responding to one such post on X, Ashwin revealed that he had shared the comments with Kohli and both of them had a laugh about it, calling out the nature of “click-baity fan wars” on social media.

“Just spoke to Virat about “Rajiv1841’s” concern on the indirect attack, and we both had a good laugh about how social media works on such click baity fan wars. Thanks for giving us a reason to bond and talk,” Ashwin wrote in reply to the user’s post.

Having retired from T20Is and Tests, Virat Kohli now remains active only in the ODI format for India. He recently featured in the ODI series against New Zealand and returned with scores of 93, 23 and 124.