Steve Smith dismisses Virat Kohli's DRS claims in Bengaluru Test as 'rubbish'

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Australia captain Steve Smith has dismissed Virat Kohli's claims that the visitors resorted to systematic abuse of DRS in a bid to win the Border-Gavaskar Test series earlier this year.

In an exclusive interview with ESPNcricinfo, Smith said that he's still mystified by Kohli's accusations, and called the claims "rubbish".

A huge row erupted minutes after India wrapped up a sensational victory in the second Test of the series at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in March.

In a hot-tempered match, Smith and his batting partner Peter Handscomb were seen looking at the dressing room for an indication whether to go for a review after he was declared leg before against Umesh Yadav.

DRS - Dressing room review system? Smith tries to get some suggestions from the dressing room for a review https://t.co/2V488WaKEp #INDvAUS

— BCCI (@BCCI) March 7, 2017

India won the low-scoring match by 75 runs to level the series 1-1 after Australia's surprising win in Pune.

At the post-match press conference, Smith claimed that it was a ‘brain fade’ moment, saying: “It was a bit of a brain fade on my behalf. I was looking at our boys, and shouldn’t have done that.

“It is probably the first time it has happened. It was probably a brain fade. But it shouldn’t have happened.”

However, Kohli hinted that the Aussies were cheating, although he simply said ‘I didn’t use that word', when reporters further probed the Indian captain what he really felt about the situation.

“There are loopholes in every technology. People are bound to make mistakes…. But we take our own decisions, we don’t look for confirmation upstairs.”

When told that Smith had described it as a ‘brain fade’, Kohli dismissed it as an accident.

“I saw it happen twice, their players going upstairs (looking at the dressing room). That is why the umpire knew what was happening. We brought it to their attention and told the match referee. They knew what was going on.

“This is a line you don’t cross. I will never do that,” Kohli added.

But in his book, The Journey, Smith wrote that "It wasn't until afterwards that I realised what a talking point it had become, fuelled by Kohli's post-match claims that we'd called on off-field assistance twice earlier in the match to help our on-field deliberations."

"As far as I was concerned, we'd never tried to consult with the dressing room beforehand and although he said he'd brought those previous occasions to the notice of the umpires, I can say categorically that we were never spoken to by either those umpires or match referee Chris Broad about any such breaches in protocol," Smith continued.

The four-match series, which India won 2-1, witnessed one of the most intensed encounters between the two sides with the two protagonists in Kohli and Smith playing their bits.