Former South Africa captain Dean Elgar, who announced his retirement from international cricket earlier this month, has made a shocking revelation from the Proteas’ tour of India in 2015. Elgar claimed that former India captain Virat Kohli “spat” at him during the first Test of a four-match series at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Notably, the series against South Africa was Kohli’s first at home as captain. Elgar also revealed that he threatened to hit Kohli had he done the same thing again.
“Those wickets were jokes. Like playing on that… that surface there. And I came into bat and I was actually like holding my own against Ashwin and what’s his name Jeja, Jeja, Jeja (Ravindra Jadeja) (smiles) and Kohli, he like spat at me,” Elgar said on “Banter, with The Boys” podcast for Betway South Africa’s YouTube channel.
“I said to him if you do that, I’ll f*****g ***** you with this bat,” he added, using a local profanity.
On being asked if Kohli knew the meaning of the word, Elgar replied: “Yes, he did because de Villiers was his teammate at RCB, so he understood. And I said if you do that, I’ll … on this field, I’ll absolutely knock you out. And then [he said] ‘Hey F*** you, F*** you’ (mimicking the Indian) but barking up the wrong tree yeah. Anyways, we are in India so you got to be a little bit cautious.”
Elgar, however, revealed that Kohli apologised to him for his behaviour over a few drinks when India toured South Africa in 2017-18.
“Two three years later, Kohli pulled me aside and said ‘listen, can we go and have a drink after the series i want to apologise for my actions’. So we drank till 3 in the morning. This is when he used to drink,” he concluded
Elgar played his last Test against India earlier this month at the Newlands in Cape Town.
In his final Test, Elgar captained South Africa with Temba Bavuma missing out due to injury.
However, India won the second Test to level the series 1-1.
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