{"id":23578,"date":"2026-01-08T11:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/2026\/01\/08\/ind-vs-nz-vikas-kohli-stands-up-for-brother-virat-amid-criticism-before-odis\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:01:09","slug":"ind-vs-nz-vikas-kohli-stands-up-for-brother-virat-amid-criticism-before-odis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/2026\/01\/08\/ind-vs-nz-vikas-kohli-stands-up-for-brother-virat-amid-criticism-before-odis\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs NZ: Vikas Kohli Stands Up for Brother Virat Amid Criticism Before ODIs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<h3>Vikas Kohli Defends Brother Virat Against Critics<\/h3>\n<p>Vikas Kohli, brother of Indian cricket star Virat Kohli, has spoken out against critics following comments made by former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar. Manjrekar expressed disappointment over Virat&#8217;s choice to step away from Test cricket, suggesting he should have fought harder to regain his form rather than leaving the format early.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Vikas took to Threads to address those he believes use Virat&#8217;s name to stay relevant. He remarked that some people struggle to find their own identity without mentioning his brother. While it\u2019s unclear if this was aimed specifically at Manjrekar, many fans interpreted it that way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Seems like people cannot run their households without taking Virat Kohli&#8217;s name,&#8221; Vikas commented on Threads.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t Vikas&#8217;s first time defending his brother; he previously criticized Manjrekar for remarking on Virat&#8217;s IPL performance.<\/p>\n<h3>Kohli Shines On the Field<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the noise off the field, Virat Kohli has been performing exceptionally well in One Day Internationals (ODIs). In the recent series against South Africa, Kohli was instrumental in helping India secure a 2-1 victory at home. He scored impressive centuries\u2014135 and 102\u2014along with an unbeaten 65, making him the series&#8217; top scorer with a total of 302 runs.<\/p>\n<p>Virat also made a noteworthy return to domestic cricket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after a long absence of nearly 15 years. He notably scored 131 runs off 101 balls in a match against Andhra and followed it up with a solid 77 off 61 balls against Gujarat, quickly earning accolades for his performance.<\/p>\n<p>On January 7, Virat&#8217;s arrival in Vadodara for the ODI opener drew a massive crowd at the airport, showcasing his enduring popularity among fans. Security had to be enhanced to manage the enthusiastic supporters who came out in large numbers to catch a glimpse of the cricketer.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ends &#8211;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vikas Kohli Defends Brother Virat Against Critics Vikas Kohli, brother of Indian cricket star Virat Kohli, has spoken out against critics following comments made by former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar. Manjrekar expressed disappointment over Virat&#8217;s choice to step away from Test cricket, suggesting he should have fought harder to regain his form rather than leaving the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[30276,16164,1284,9943,5097,1471,26647,5642,30275,904],"class_list":["post-23578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-india-vs-new-zealand-2024","tag-indian-cricket-fans","tag-indian-cricket-team","tag-jacob-duffy","tag-new-zealand-cricket","tag-odi-series","tag-t20-world-cup-2026","tag-vijay-hazare-trophy","tag-vikas-kohli","tag-virat-kohli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}