Not in our DNA to play cricket like that: Sunil Gavaskar on Kohli-Paine spat

Sunil Gavaskar was critical of the Indian team after an ugly war of words between Virat Kohli and Tim Paine during the fourth day of the Perth Test. Kohli and Paine collided with each other before the umpire was forced to intervene before lunch.

And then during India's innings, Paine had a go at Vijay and said: "Murali, I know he's your captain but you can't seriously like him as a bloke."

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also blasted Kohli's on-field behaviour and said the India skipper needed to be more responsible.

On Monday, Gavaskar said the Indian team are no saints and he believed they were the ones who began the sledging war in Australia and now they had to be prepared to cop it. Ironically, Kohli had promised his men won't start any verbal wars and would react only if the Australians played dirty.

"Tim Paine is not in the Indian dressing room.. So how does he know Vijay does not like Kohli?," Gavaskar told India Today.

"These are the kind of things which are called gamesmanship. We have not been saints either. Way back in 2014, when Australia were down with the tragic death of Phillip Hughes, we started it. They were too shocked in the first Test and we started it.

"In a situation like this, we will always lose. Australia are used to playng like that, we are not. It's not in our DNA to play cricket like that. You also have to take into account if everyone in the team can take it. Even over here, we have started it," Gavaskar said.