India captain Virat Kohli, who on Wednesday had tweeted an appeal for unity in the country, on Thursday said the ongoing farmers’ protest against new agriculture laws has come up for discussion in his team meeting where everyone has “expressed what they had to”.

At a virtual media conference ahead of the first Test against England in Chennai starting on Friday, Kohli was asked by a reporter: “I have to ask you this question on your tweet. And if your colleagues are talking about the farmers' protests, if they’re finding a place in the team conversations...”

To that, Kohli responded: “Like any issue that is present in the country, we do discuss and talk about it, and everyone has expressed what they had to about the issue. And that’s about it. We briefly spoke about it in the team meeting as well and then we carried on discussing the team plans and the game plans.”

He, however, did not divulge the details of the “brief” conversation on the matter.

On Wednesday, Kohli was among a host of Indian cricket stars, including Sachin Tendulkar, who urged for unity in the country after some international celebrities like US pop star Rihanna called attention to the plight of the agitating farmers on social media.

“Let us all stay united in this hour of disagreements. Farmers are an integral part of our country and I'm sure an amicable solution will be found between all parties to bring about peace and move forward together,” Kohli had tweeted.

Former cricketer Irfan Pathan took a veiled dig at the Twitter outrage. “When George Floyd was brutally murdered in the USA by a policeman, our country rightly expressed our grief. #justsaying,” he tweeted.