Cricket: Swann comes to Kohli's defence, says ball was 'unplayable'

Former English off-spinner Graeme Swann said Ben Stokes’s delivery that got Kohli out could have been unplayable to any batter from any era.

Coming to Virat Kohli's defence, Swann said that it isn't fair to point fingers at the star batter for not managing to convert his start into a big knock.

This happened after the former India captain was dismissed for 20 in India’s 2nd innings on Day 3 of the rescheduled Test against England in Birmingham.

Speaking to a local sports plaform he said that he thought Indian commentators are tough on Kohli sometimes.

“You can say what you want, I don’t care, who is batting in any period of Test history if you can survive that delivery you are very, very lucky. That is unplayable. It’s a lucky catch in the end,” Swann said.

“Regardless, if you are looking to get on the front foot, back foot that ball is a ripsnorter. For an English point of view, I often find that whenever Indian commentators talk about Virat, I always think ‘wow they are quite harsh on him’. The standards are so high for Virat, I thought he was very at ease today,” he added.

Finally, he said that he thought the short delivery was unexpected. "I think it was clever batting,” Swann added.

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