Full marks to Virat Kohli for the way he handled the James Anderson-R Ashwin spat says Sunil Gavaskar

That India were firm favourites to win the Mumbai Test on the morning of Day 5 was a no-brainer. That they would do so in such convincing fashion withing the opening hour of the day was not expected and led by Ravichandran Ashwin’s six-wicket haul, India completed an emphatic innings and 36 run win to take a 3-0 lead in the five-match Test series.

However, even as India completed the win, there were a few moments just before that which left a bit of a sour taste to the triumph. England fast bowler James Anderson was involved in a bit of verbal spat with Ashwin when he walked out to bat and before it got out of hand, skipper Virat Kohli stepped in and calmed things down.

Reacting later to the whole incident, the 28-year-old said that the off-spinner was not happy about what Anderson had told the media a day earlier and let him know about it without using any cuss awards.

“For the first time, I was trying to calm things down. Ashwin was not pleased over what he had told to the press. I had no clue about it and I didn’t know what to make of it and was laughing about it. So let me know about it. Not using any bad words,honestly. I think he said he was pretty disappointed about what he said,” Kohli said after the game.

Extra Cover: British tabloid at it again, accuses Ravichandran Ashwin of using cuss words against James Anderson

Speaking about the incident, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that these incidents happened in matches and praised Kohli for the manner in which he cooled things down in the middle.

“Things do happen sometimes on the field and its good for the umpires to step in and always better if the captain can come and ensure calm prevails and I think that's what Virat did and full marks for him for doing that,” Gavaskar told NDTV.

It is not often that one sees a character like Kohli becoming the person, who stops on-field altercations from going out of hand, but his display during the Mumbai Test does show that he has surely come a long way from being this brash guy to becoming someone who calms things down in the middle.