Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell made headlines on Day 3 of Ranchi Test for all the wrong reasons. However, Maxwell deserved the criticism of the masses but it was Smith who was wrongfully accused of mocking Virat Kohli’s shoulder injury. Smith’s zoomed in the photo went viral as he was depicted holding his shoulder after taking Kohli’s catch at second slip, but, the story was not what it seemed.
Smith took the catch and started celebrating as it was a big wicket just moments after taking the new ball. The photo was misleading because when you zoom in the video, it will show that it was wicketkeeper Peter Handsomb’s hand on his shoulder whilst celebrating Kohli’s wicket.
ICYMI: Photo debunks alleged Smith ‘controversy’: https://t.co/TjtCNIxX3V #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/KWdsND7Q1k
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) March 19, 2017
Even broadcaster Star Sports made an issue out of it. The commentators too took it in a bad taste as his teammate Glenn Maxwell had mocked Kohli’s injury earlier in the day. Maxwell saved a boundary in a similar fashion to that of Kohli, he started laughing as soon as he walked back to his fielding position after saving the boundary. There was no misunderstanding there as it was quite clear that he wanted to mock Kohli’s injury.
The Smith and Maxwell incident did not go down well with the Twitterati as they got infuriated for the foul actions on the field, little did they know that Smith had nothing to do it. Although as an Australian captain he could have signalled Maxwell to stop the foul exercise and focus more on the game.
Well, the funny part is that Smith got into another controversy with Handscomb’s hand in it and it was the broadcasters who had a ‘brain fade’ moment not paying attention to details.
