Vamika’s pictures or Virat Kohli’s form, why is Anushka Sharma the convenient punching bag for everything?

On Sunday, as the Indian cricket team played South Africa at Cape Town, the official broadcaster of the match revealed Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli’s daughter Vamika’s face. Given that Virat and Anushka have been fiercely protective of Vamika’s privacy, fans were livid at what they breach of privacy.

On Monday, both Virat and Anushka released identical statements saying they were ‘caught off guard’. Their statement read, “We realise that our daughter’s images were captured at the stadium yesterday and widely shared thereafter. We want to inform everyone that we were caught off guard and didn’t know that the camera was on us. Our stance and request on the matter stays the same. We would really appreciate if Vamika’s images are not clicked/published for reasons we have explained earlier.”

However, there was a section of people who argued that Anushka had ‘brought this upon herself’ by taking Vamika to a public place like the stadium. Several tweets and comments on the internet criticised Anushka for what they believed was ‘hypocrisy’. “You don’t want your child to be photographed? Don’t take them to a public place,” read one tweet. Many said that being a public figure, she should have known the cameras will click her at the stadium. “As if she is visiting stadium for the first time,” wrote one critic.

This isn’t the first time Anushka is being targeted by a section of fans for something wrong with the Sharma-Kohli world. Be it Virat’s loss of form, India’s defeat, or something to do with Vamika, Anushka seems like a rather easy target, recurrently.

One doesn’t have to go too far back to remember the last instance. A few months ago, during the 2021 T20 World Cup, when India lost against arch-rivals Pakistan in a one-sided game, some Twitter trolls attributed the loss to Anushka since she ‘didn’t fast for Virat on Karva Chauth’. While Anushka did receive overwhelming support against the trolls, many such comments have often been made against heron her whenever Virat failed on the field.

Sadly, it’s not just the trolls who have taken that tone for Anushka. Former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar has been guilty of it too. During the 2020 Indian Premier League, when Virat and his side were in the middle of bad run, the veteran referred to Virat’s lockdown videos of playing cricket with Anushka and quipped on air, “Inhone lockdown me to bas Anushka ki gendon ki practice ki hain (He has only trained against Anushka’s bowling during the lockdown).” The jibe was in reference to a viral video shot by a fan where Virat and Anushka were playing cricket on their terrace during the lockdown.

A hurt Anushka even called Gavaskar out for his ‘distasteful’ statement and wrote on social media, “I would love for you to explain why you thought of making such a sweeping statement on a wife accusing her of her husband’s game?”

And this has been a constant feature for the actor since before she was married to Virat. Even back when the couple was dating, Anushka would often be criticised by some cricket fans for ‘distracting’ Virat whenever she visited the stadium to support him. In 2015, Anushka flew to Australia to support Virat when the Indian team was playing the World Cup semi-final. But after India lost, many called Anushka a bad omen.

The question is, why is Anushka targeted? Other wives and girlfriends of cricketers–from Sakshi Dhoni to Anjali Tendulkar–haven’t faced the fans’ wrath quite like this. Maybe it has to do with her public profile. She was already a star in her own right when she began dating the most popular cricketer in the country. And for many, their cricketing hero dating an ‘actress’ meant a distraction.

God forbid if the said actress may actually have a good influence on him. No no, that’s not my conjecture. It’s from the man himself. In a 2017 interview with Gaurav Chopra on Breakfast With Champions, he talked about the lady luck in his life, and said, “I had no brains or sense about things. Since the lady has entered my life, she has taught me a lot of things. Now, I get a lot of things. I have gained a lot of maturity in the last four years because of her.” Sadly, some choose to overlook this and continue to view the ‘lady luck’ as a distraction.

Also read: Anushka Sharma, Virat Kohli break silence as Vamika’s pics go viral: ‘We were caught off guard, our stance remains same’

On her part, Anushka has said she prefers to ignore these comments. In an interview with Filmfare in 2019, she said, “Honestly, I don’t pay attention to nasty comments…unfortunately, we’re living in times where we find it so easy to be mean because there’s no accountability or any kind of responsibility involved. The sad part is also that they’re half-baked and uniformed opinions coming out with such great elan and confidence.”

However, the wheel is far from breaking. Just a couple of days ago, former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar made another statement about Virat’s marriage and how it might have influenced his game. Talking to Dainik Jagran, he said, “I would have not even married if I were in his place. I had just scored runs and enjoyed cricket, these 10-12 years of cricket are different time and doesn’t come again, I am not saying getting married is wrong but If you are playing for India, you would have enjoyed a time a little. fans are crazy about Kohli and he had to maintain that love he is getting for the last 20 years.”

Whatever Shoaib might have intended with this comment (though there is very little scope of successfully justifying this logic), surely it has given fuel to trolls’ resolve to harass Anushka further. She is being blamed for turning Virat ‘woke’ and once again, diverting his focus from his work. 

Meanwhile, the number of instances when Virat has been blamed for the failure of Zero or Jab Harry Met Sejal remains stuck at zero.