Virat Kohli lashed out at a fan while promoting his newly-launched app. (Twitter/Screengrab) Virat Kohli lashed out at a fan while promoting his newly-launched app. (Twitter/Screengrab)

Virat Kohli has embroiled himself in fresh controversy after video footage on social media showed the Indian captain saying that “those who prefer English and Australian batsmen should not live in India.” Kohli was reading out mean messages addressed to him by fans and responding to them.

In the video available on his newly released app, Kohli reads out tweets and Instagram messages offering his opinions on them. He then gets to a comment by a user who says Kohli is an overrated batsman. The user says that it’s preferable to watch Australian and English batsmen. “Over-rated batsman and personally I see nothing special in his batting. I enjoy watching English and Australian batsmen more than these Indians,” Kohli reads.

Kohli, in turn, took a dig at the user and said, “Okay, I don’t think you should live in India then… you should go and live somewhere else, no? Why are you living in our country and loving other countries? I don’t mind you not liking me but I don’t think you should live in our country and like other things. Get your priorities right.”

Kohli’s approach to the question has not gone well with social media users and the 30-year-old has faced flak from various quarters. Some even went on to remind Kohli of his statement during the U19 Cricket World Cup in 2008, wherein he said that his favourite cricketer was former South African opener Herschelle Gibbs.

The latest blabbering by @imVkohli shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

In the month of November, he tends to go off the rails.

This is nothing compared to what he said 2 years ago. 😲🤔😋 pic.twitter.com/WqElQmrohj — Akash Banerjee (@akashbanerjee) November 7, 2018

‘I’m @imVkohli, and my favourite cricketer is @hershybru.’~Virat Kohli(2008)~ — Ansar Alam (@theansar) 7 November 2018

Not a good gesture Mr captain @imVkohli . It’s not true sportsmanship https://t.co/mxMR5gHKBX — CA Vishnu Sharma (@vishnukd2) 7 November 2018

In the recently-concluded ODI series against West Indies, Kohli also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest to scale the 10,000 runs milestone in the 50-over format of the game.

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