Steve Smith reveals how he felt about Virat Kohli gesture

Australia batsman Steve Smith has admitted that Virat Kohli’s call for the India crowd to stop booing and start clapping him was a ‘lovely gesture’.

Smith has made his return to international cricket following a year-long ban and has received a somewhat understandably hostile reception from English crowds so far.

Arguably the most high-profile incident though came on June 9 when India faced Australia and the Indian fans reportedly directed ‘cheater, cheater’ chants at the former captain.

However, Kohli told his own crowd to applaud Smith and not direct hostility towards him.

“Yeah, it was a lovely gesture. It doesn’t really bother me what the crowd do to be perfectly honest, I’m just sort of blocking it all out but it was a lovely gesture from Virat, that’s for sure,” ESPN Cricinfo quoted Smith as saying.

Smith then discussed his 73 off 103 balls against the West Indies: “We spoke after the first [warm-up] game against West Indies, and one-day cricket you’ve got to really adapt to the conditions and sometimes you may need to play like a Test match and sometimes you may need to play like a T20.

“I know the situation a lot of the time, it’s about summing it up and playing according to what needs to be done out in the middle.”