South Africa coach Shukri Conrad isn’t the most loved man in India at the moment, certain alleged gestures by top players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have shown. It was Kohli who snubbed a handshake with Conrad after the conclusion of the first ODI between the two sides in Ranchi. The visual went viral on social media, prompting fans to claim that the snub was because of the South Africa coach’s ‘grovel’ statement in the Guwahati Test. Now, another video has surfaced on social media, claiming Rohit could be seen avoiding a handshake with Conrad, just like Kohli did.
The video shows the Indian team returning to the dressing room after the 17-run victory in the first ODI. On their way back, the players shook hands with the members of the South African team, including Conrad. After Kohli, Rohit seemed to have avoided a handshake with the Proteas head coach, signalling he wasn’t happy with his statement in the Test series too.
After South Africa had built a massive lead in the Guwahati Test against India, they chose to bat for a prolonged period, forcing the hosts’ bowlers to toil for an exhausting amount of time. Referring to the strategy, Conrad said in the press conference:
“We wanted India to spend as much time on their feet out in the field. We wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase, bat them completely out of the game.”
Many critics, including former players like Dale Steyn and Anil Kumble, felt the term was unnecessarily provocative, politically loaded, and carried too much baggage to be used in modern cricket.
The incident seemingly led to Kohli appearing to avoid a handshake with Conrad during the post-match line-up of a subsequent ODI, signalling the offence the term had caused within the Indian camp.