Former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull has revealed that he has been receiving death threats for his criticism of India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli. While the cricketer-turned-commentator has often labelled Kohli as the greatest batter of his generation, he also doesn’t shy away from criticising him whenever he needs to. As an observer of the game, Doull was one of several former players who had criticised Kohli for his batting strike rate during the initial phase of IPL 2024.

Kohli had also voiced his anger over the criticism of his batting approach, saying that he doesn’t like people to tell him how to construct him, considering that he has been winning games for over a decade.

While RCB’s wait for an IPL title continued, Kohli ended the season as the highest run-getter. He scored 741 runs in 15 matches at an average of 154.7.

During a discussion, Kohli’s RCB teammate Dinesh Karthik suggested that the star batter thrives in such situations as he likes to prove his critics wrong.

“Virat Kohli would like to write a book on how he was this year. He started okay. Thanks to people like Simon (Doull) and a few others who really spurred him on. And you know that side of Virat Kohli. I think that he thrives on that. He is someone who inadvertently holds on to certain things to do well. He loves people proving wrong. Even though he might not come out and say this, it really fuels his passion. He is like a molten lava coming out. He is fiery and you don’t want to be anywhere close to him because you are going to get burnt for sure,” Karthik on Cricbuzz after the IPL 2024 final with Doull also part of the discussion.

Doull emphasised that nobody really cares when he praises Kohli, but a minor criticism of the star batter often leads to him getting death threats from the so called fans

“He’s too good to worry about what if he gets out. He’s too good a player, and that was always my point around him. I said a thousand great things about Virat Kohli, but I say one thing that might be slightly negative or construed to be negative, I get death threats,” Doull pointed out during the same discussion.

Doull further suggested that he has nothing personal against Kohli as he often speaks to him before or after the games.

“It’s never personal. We’ve had great conversations. I’ve interviewed him at tosses, we’ve talked after games, there’s never been an issue. It’s the same thing I said about Babar and talked to him after the game. He also told me that the coach had said that same to him,” he added.

Karthik condemned the death threats against Doull, urging the Indian fans to find the difference between constructive criticism and someone taking personal jibes.

“That’s pretty sad to hear though…You go to basketball, football games and you see pundits speak about the game. I think the Indian fans should really find out the difference between people taking it personally or people talking about his cricketing side. Virat really appreaciates that,” Karthik asserted.

Simon Doull said that the Indian players are “too worried about stats”.© AFP