‘I will knock you out’ - Dean Elgar remembers when he warned Virat Kohli after their verbal spat

Former South African opener and skipper Dean Elgar has just retired from international cricket. His last appearance was during the two-match Test series against India earlier this year. The 36-year-old was recently in conversation recounting his experiences in a podcast. The topic eventually turned to his relationship with former India skipper Virat Kohli.

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The two players didn’t enjoy the greatest of relationships with Dean Elgar. At the end of the Cape Town Test, Virat Kohli was seen having a chat and even gifting an Indian jersey to Elgar. Remembering one of the incidents, Dean Elgar said he had warned Kohli of dire consequences. According to the former Proteas opener, Kohli had spat at him during the Mohali Test in 2015. 

Dean Elgar recollects his nasty encounter with Virat Kohli – 

India and South African players get along well but the same cannot be said about Dean Elgar and Virat Kohli. Speaking to a podcast Dean Elgar recollected how he had warned Virat Kohli during the Mohali Test. 

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“Those wickets were jokes. Like playing on that surface there. And I came into bat and I was actually holding my own against Ashwin and what’s his name Jeja (Jadeja). Kohli, he like spat at me”. These are some massive allegations aimed at Virat Kohli considering the stature he has in international cricket.

Dean Elgar further said, “I said to him if you do that I will f****g knock you with this bat”. For the good measure, the then 28-year-old also used a South African bad word. This prompted the hosts to ask if Kohli knew the South African language. 

Answering this, Dean Elgar said “Yes he did because De Villiers was his teammate at RCB, so he understood. And I said if you do that, I will absolutely knock you out”  Elgar then mimicked the Indian accent while replaying Kohli’s comeback “Hey F*** You, Barking up the wrong tree yeah. Anyways we are in India so we have to be cautious ”

The two stars seemed to have made peace a few years later when India toured South Africa in 2018. “Two-three years later, Kohli pulled me aside and said ‘Listen, can we go and have a drink after the series I want to apologize for my actions’. So we drank till three in the morning. This is when he used to drink” recounted Dean Elgar.