Old tweet by Congress leader criticising Virat Kohli goes viral in wake of her comments on Rohit Sharma

After calling Indian captain Rohit Sharma “fat” and “unimpressive,” a social media post from 2018 by Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed that claimed that “Virat Kohli plays a British game” has reappeared and sparked intense online reactions. In the post, she criticized Virat Kohli for his reply to a fan where he said that people who prefer English and Australian batsmen “should not live in India.”

“Virat Kohli plays a British invented game, makes crores from endorsing foreign brands, gets married in Italy, names Hershelle Gibbs his favorite cricketer & Angelique Kerber the best tennis player, but tells those who love foreign batsmen to leave India,” Mohamed had posted in November 2018.

She made the post in reference to an incident where the ex-captain was going through comments that people sent to him when he received one that said, “Overrated batsman. I personally have seen nothing special in his batting. I enjoy watching English and Australian batsmen more than these Indian.”

Kohli replied saying, “I don’t think you should live in India, go and live somewhere else. 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,” he added, saying, “Get your priorities right.”

This tweet has resurfaced after Mohamed recently stirred controversy with a now deleted tweet that said, “Rohit Sharma is fat for a sportsman! Need to lose weight! And of course the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had!”

Mohamed continued with her criticism, questioning Rohit's decision-making and justifying her position by drawing comparisons between him and previous Indian captains, saying, “Didn’t he move KL Rahul to bat at number 3 at the MCG Test & put himself at number 1 which backfired totally! Wasn’t that a selfish move? Because of that, Shubam Gill was out of the XI.”

“Didn’t we lose the last World Cup which took place in Ahmedabad? I have compared him to our previous captains,” she continued.

She kept criticising Rohit Sharma, referring to him as a “mediocre player” and a “mediocre captain”. She said, “What is so world class about him when compared to his predecessors like Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni, Kohli, Kapil Dev, Shastri and the rest! He is a mediocre captain as well as a mediocre player who got lucky to be the Captain of India.”

“It was just a generic tweet about the fitness of a sportsperson. It is not body shaming. It is about the fitness of a sportsperson. I always believe a sports person has to be fit. So, I felt he is a bit overweight, so I tweeted on that. I am being attacked for no reason,” Mohamed told ANI.

She went on to say, “When I compared him to other captains like Dhoni, or for that matter Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, and Virat, so I put up a statement.”

She continued by saying, “It [India] is a democracy. I have the right, What’s wrong in saying?”

“I just spoke in a generic manner and I failed to understand that in a democracy we don’t have the right to speak in such a manner,” said Mohamed, in defense of her controversial remarks.