Indian captain Virat Kohli has rubbished suggestion of an alleged rift with vice-captain Rohit Sharma.

The allegations emerged after India lost the World Cup semi-final to New Zealand earlier this month and prior to this week’s departure for the tour of the United States and West Indies.

‘In my opinion, it’s baffling, to be honest. It’s absolutely ridiculous to read such stuff that comes out there. I mean I’ve been to a few public events and the public sentiment that I’ve seen – everyone comes up and says that we played so well,’ said Kohli.

‘And here we are feeding off lies, we are overlooking facts, we are turning a blind eye to all the good things that have happened and creating fantasies and scenarios in our head and we want to accept that this is the truth.

‘And I’ve seen this for too long now, you know bringing personal lives into the picture, it’s disrespectful at the moment. I’ve played the game for 11 years, Rohit has played for 10 years. It’s bizarre that you people are creating this on the outside when, as I said, so much about the change-room environment.

‘If the team environment was not good, we wouldn’t have played the way we have in the last two to three years. I know very well how important the dressing-room environment and the trust factor are to succeed in international cricket. If that wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have been here in world cricket.’

The West Indies and India will contest two T20Is in Florida early next month before travelling to the Caribbean for one more – and five ODIs and three Tests.

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