Sourav Ganguly explains why Virat Kohli walked despite not edging the ball against Pakistan

What's the story?

An unusual incident happened in yesterday's high-octane encounter between India and Pakistan as the Indian skipper Virat Kohli walked despite being not out.

However, later in the commentary box, the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly revealed the possible reason as to why Virat Kohli walked. According to Ganguly, the handle of Kohli's bat could have creaked which could have eventually led to the sound that we heard as the ball went past the bat.

In case you didn't know...

The India-Pakistan clash happened to be a pretty one-sided encounter right from the start of the day. Despite winning the toss, Pakistan couldn't make an informed decision as they decided to bowl first which backfired as the Rohit Sharma's brilliant century and KL Rahul's gritty fifty set a fantastic platform for the Indian middle-order.

Capitalizing on that, Virat played a fiery knock of 77, and Hardik Pandya too rose to the occasion as he chipped in with quick-fire 26. As a result, India set a mammoth target of 337 for Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, the target proved to be too much for Pakistan as they lost the game by 89 runs (DLS method).

The heart of the matter

The incident of Virat walking away voluntarily happened in the 48th over of the 1st innings. Kohli was on the strike and Mohammad Amir was the bowler. The Indian captain looked set to finish India's innings on a high but Amir's sharp bouncer came as a surprise to Kohli. Virat tried to hit the bouncer out of the park but failed to make any contact as the ball travelled straight to Sarfaraz Ahmed and the Pakistanis appealed thinking that the Indian skipper nicked it.

Not waiting for the umpire to make his decision, Kohli made his way back to the pavilion as felt that he has nicked the ball. However, later the Ultra Edge revealed that he didn't nick the ball and there was daylight between the bat and the ball.

Later in the commentary box, Sourav Ganguly revealed the possible reason as to why the Indian skipper walked.

"There is a creak in the handle (of Virat's bat). It's a common problem in this part of the world when you keep getting hit in the top of the bat the handle starts creaking. When nobody believes you have hit it, it's actually the sound (from the handle) that makes the batsman believe that there's some edge", said Sourav on the official TV broadcast.

What's next?

The wicket, thankfully, did not have any effect on the result as India comfortably beat Pakistan. The Indian cricket team will now head to Southampton where they will meet their Asian counterpart Afghanistan on 22nd June.

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