Kohli dismisses speculations about rift with Kumble

With multiple reports emerging about the alleged rift between India's coach Anil Kumble and captain Virat Kohli, the latter dismissed the speculations categorically. He followed the tone set by BCCI's acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary from a few days earlier in saying that he hasn't heard any of the talk surrounding this. The concerns were built up surrounding the issue of the appointment of India's new coach, and the timing, as BCCI called for applications a day after the Indian team left for the Champions Trophy 2017.

"So there have been a lot of speculations and a lot of things being written by people without actually being a part of the changing room, which is very strange. There are no problems whatsoever. As I mentioned before, if something (selection of a new coach) is put in place as a process, I mean, I don't see why people are creating so many speculations about it. It's been followed last time as well, and I didn't see any issues being created last time. So it's the same process," said Kohli on the eve of their tournament opener against Pakistan.

The captain also chose to take a dig at the reports coming out saying, "It's just happening after 12 months. And there are no issues whatsoever. The team is totally focused on the Champions Trophy, and I honestly don't even know. People who even try to tell me about this, I don't even want to know anything of this sort, because in a tournament that is in focus so much, and it's such a big stage, a lot of people like to find a lot of rumours flying around, especially before the start of the tournament.

"So, yeah, they're doing their job, they're trying to create some nice livelihood. And that's all we can say. We're focused on our livelihood, which is on the field and that's all that we're going to focus on.

"And unless - I will just say one thing - unless someone is part of something, I don't think they should sit at a distance and speculate and give judgments on what's happening.

"I'm not here to give judgments on anyone's life. And as cricketers we just focus on the Champions Trophy," he added.

"I don't think any walk of life or in any situatuon in life, you agree with everything. Disagreements happen. Like I said, if I don't have full knowledge about something, unless I'm in that situation or I know what's happening, I won't comment on it. Nor will I pass a judgement to someone. I think here the lack of patience is very high and people speculate a lot from afar. When it is not true, nobody writes that it was our mistake. Nobody accepts their own mistakes. I have seen these things. That's why I don't focus on such things. If you've written, then tomorrow you have to take ownership of it. If it's not there, I won't speculate and even if I do, and I'm proved wrong then I'll tell that 'Yes, I was wrong'," Kohli reasoned.

"You don't agree upon everything even at home. It's normal. The people who think about it or speculate about it, they should think if they agree upon everything in every situation. I think it's a pretty basic human nature thing. All I can say is, if you don't have knowledge about something, then don't spread rumours or speculate and focus on cricket," he stressed.

When specifically asked about his, and the team's, relationship with Kumble over the last year, Kohli said "It's been really good. The whole journey has been good. And as long as the process is concerned, as I've mentioned, I've answered that before. And something that I don't need to elaborate sitting here. There are people who would know better about that and can elaborate much better. But, yeah, it's been good."