India's tour of West Indies: Fuming Pujara invokes 'spirit of the game' to slam Kohli's tactics

New Delhi: A rather reticent Arvind Pujara, father of Cheteshwar hits out at skipper Virat Kohli for the retiring out three of India's top batsmen during their two-day practice match against West Indies Cricket Board President's XI at Warner Park, St. Kitts.

"I don't know what was the logic of these batsmen or the captain (Virat Kohli) but it is not against the spirit of the game", Arvind told Deccan Chronicle.

India's top three batsmen – Lokesh Rahul (50), Shikhar Dhawan (51) and Cheteshwar (34) retired out as India post 258 in a drawn match, which witnessed WICB XI's Shai Hope remaining unbeaten on 118.

"They may have their own tactics. Being a coach for my son, I never had opportunity to discuss such move with him in the past. As a coach, my job was to teach him the basics of the game. The coach of the current generation apply their own tactics in the match", he added.

Retiring out occasionally happens in friendly or practice matches, but it was first recorded in international cricket 2001 when Sri Lankan Marvan Atapattu (201) and Mahela Jayawardene (150) were called in by captain Sanath Jayasuria against Bangladesh.

Jayasuria later faced criticism from the Sri Lankan press after this incident.

It's hard to find fault in Arvind's criticism of Kohli, but the skipper's call can be judged from the fact that other Indian batsmen got to bat in the practice match.

And it's best summed up by former umpire Rudi Koertzen, who onced said that, “the laws of the game never prohibit the batsmen to retire at any time and if it is in the interest of the team it is always good. The retiring batsmen giving chance to the other team members to bat is a good decision. It is not against the spirit of the game.”