Days after Indian pacer Mohammed Shami came under attack over his religion, Indian skipper Virat Kohli has on Saturday opened up about the awful incident and slammed the ill-full attackers, thanks to them as such attackers had strengthened the solidarity among the Men In Blue and their bigotry had boomeranged against them in the form of reiterating that there is no place for divide and religion has no business in sports. 

Mohammed Shami had faced attacks over his religion after India had lost its opening match to Pakistan in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Pakistan had defeated India by ten wickets and it was in Shami's over that the Pakistan batsmen finished the chase successfully and scripted the history of beating India for the first time in the World Cup. Shami was trolled on social media not for his bowling, but for his Muslim identity. Such appalling trolls had stirred outrage across the country with several former and current cricketers and fans are coming together in defence of Shami and expressed solidarity with him. 

The development had showcased how India's most celebrated sport had become vulnerable to bigotry and how the players are condemned based on their identity not on their performances. Fortunately, a pile of cricketers had immediately reacted to such hatred and bigotry and they assured that they will fully back Shami. Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar had also backed Shami and the voices against the bigotry had grown across the country. Days after Shami had endured a dismaying act, captain Virat Kohli has opened up about the incident. 

On Saturday, Virat Kohli said that attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing that a human being can do. In staunch words, Kohli said, "Attacking someone over their religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that a human being can do." He called that the social media trolls are nothing but a bunch of spineless people, who don't have the courage to face real people in real life. He said, "There is a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person." 

He stated, "Everyone has the right to voice their opinion and what they feel about a certain situation, but I personally have never ever even thought of discriminating against anyone over their religion. That is a very sacred and a personal thing and that should be left there." "Mohammed Shami has won India number of matches in the last few years and has been our primary bowler with Jasprit Bumrah when it comes to making an impact in games in Test cricket", he added. 

He further said, "If people can overlook that, I honestly don't even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people and neither does Shami and neither does anyone else in the team. We stand by him (Shami) fully. We are backing him 200 per cent. And all those who have attacked can come in more force if they want to. Our brotherhood, our friendship within the team and nothing can be shaken and I can guarantee you that as the captain of the team that we have built a culture where these things will not even infiltrate into this environment. That is an absolute guarantee for myself." 

Commenting about social media abuse, Kohli said, "They hide behind identities to go after people on social media, making fun of people and that has become a social entertainment in today's world which is so unfortunate and sad to see because this is the lowest level of human potential that one can operate at and that's how I look at these people. Those who represent the country at the highest level are special people and the common public won't have an idea about the kind of sacrifices they make to reach that level." 

He added, "How people react on the outside has no value in our group and never focused on it and we will never focus on it. We just carry on with the business that we are supposed to do. We take the learnings and move forward and not one game is more important than others." India lost to Pakistan on October 24 and the Kohli's fleet is all set to take on might New Zealanders on Sunday and this crucial match will be hosted by Dubai. New Zealand had also lost its first match to Pakistan on October 26 and as both the teams are in imperativeness to open their account, Sunday's match will unfold more tensions and nail-biting moments.