‘Shoutout to Kohli’: Congress leader, who called Rohit Sharma ‘fat’, reacts to India’s semi-final win

Congress national spokesperson Shama Mohamed, who got embroiled in a controversy for calling Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma “fat”, congratulated the team after it won against Australia in the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. Shama Mohamed’s congratulatory posts come days after she called Rohit Sharma “unfit for a captain” (File)(X/@drshamamohd)

Shama Mohamed said she was happy that India won under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma while talking to news agency ANI. “I am very happy today that India has won the semi-final match against Australia under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. I congratulate Virat Kohli for scoring 84 runs...I am very excited and looking forward to the finals,” she said.

She also congratulated the Indian cricket team through a post on X, formerly Twitter, giving a shoutout to Virat Kohli for performance. “Congratulations to #TeamIndia for their spectacular victory against Australia in the semifinals of the Champions Trophy 2025. A big shout out to @imVkohli for scoring 84 and to be the first player to score 1000 runs in ICC knock out tournaments!” she posted on X.

The controversy

Shama Mohamed’s congratulatory posts come days after she called Rohit Sharma “unfit for a captain” and suggested he needed to lose weight. In a post on Monday, which she later deleted following her party’s orders, Shama called Rohit Sharma one of India’s most “unimpressive” captains.

“Rohit Sharma is fat for a sportsman! Need to lose weight! And of course the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had!” she had posted.

She also compared Rohit Sharma to previous captains of the Indian cricket team in another post and wrote, "What is so world-class about him when compared to his predecessors? He is a mediocre captain as well as a mediocre player who got lucky to be the captain of India."

Both the posts were later deleted after the Congress party distanced itself from Shama’s remarks and said that it was not the official stance of the party.

The remarks led to severe backlash from not just the party’s political opponent Bharatiya Janata Party, but also the cricket fraternity. However, Shama later defended her statement saying that she didn’t mean to “body shame” Rohit Sharma but was making a “generic” statement about the fitness of the athlete.

“I always believed a sportsperson should be fit, and I felt he was a bit overweight, so I just tweeted about that. I have been attacked for no reason,” she had told news agency ANI.

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