IND vs AUS: The rivalry between India and Australia is one of the fiercest in modern-day cricket, and it is set for another chapter when the two teams will lock horns in a five-Test series for the Border Gavaskar Trophy starting this November.
India have beaten Australia in two consecutive Border Gavaskar series and this time they are looking to register a hat-trick of wins. Australia, on the other hand, are eagerly waiting to avenge their defeat. The preparations for this rivalry are rapidly gaining momentum, and amid all this, former India opener Aakash Chopra has added fuel to the fire. He has revealed how the Indian team and players are targeted on Australian tours.
IND vs AUS: Australia targets Team India: Aakash Chopra
Sharing a story from his commentary stint during India’s 2018-19 tour, Chopra not only criticized the actions of the Australia team but also revealed how he used to clip parts of the match from the live broadcast and share it with the Australian media to defame the Indian players.
Notably, India had registered a historic Test series win for the first time in Australia under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, and the story that Chopra shared on the ‘2 Sluggers’ podcast is from the second Test of the series played in Perth.
Chopra claimed that the broadcasters had increased the volume of the stump microphone to highlight the heated exchange between Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja on the field in order to tarnish the image of the visiting team. Chopra was in the commentary box when the incident took place.
He said in a podcast, “Australian media used to release videos. They did it in front of me when Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were arguing with each other within the 30-yard circle. The broadcasters turned up the volume of the stump mic because they were abusing each other. They cut that clip and shared it with the press in front of me. After that, when we were talking outside the ground, I said, ‘What are we really trying to achieve, because this is nothing.’
Chopra also revealed that when all this happened, Ricky Ponting was also present in the commentary box. He was critical of what he saw at first, but as soon as the former Australia captain went on air, he said something completely opposite.
“Ricky said they are ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’. But as soon as he went on air, he fiercely attacked the Indian team, and I was surprised because just a few minutes before, he had said something else.”