Virat Kohli’s ‘You’re Kidding Me’ reaction echoed by Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill after Glenn Phillips’ fielding effort
Glenn Phillips' near catch of Shubman Gill sparked discussions about his remarkable fielding skills, reminiscent of his stunning catch of Virat Kohli in 2025.
Glenn Phillips didn’t even need to complete a catch to own the moment. One slash from Shubman Gill, one full-stretch dive at backward point, and suddenly the whole ground - and the comms box was talking about something bigger than a dropped chance.
Because with Phillips, the point region stops being geography and becomes psychology. India’s batters have seen this movie before, and they remember exactly how it ended for Virat Kohli in Dubai at the Champions Trophy 2025.
The ball that triggered it all was brutally simple: width given outside the off, Gill staying back inside the crease and throwing his hands at it. Phillips flew across, left-hand outstretched, and for a split second it looked like another highlight was loading; however, the catch did not stick.
However, on commentary, Harsha Bhogle and Ian Smith quickly plugged this miss into the memory that still stings: the Dubai night at the Champions Trophy 2025 when Phillips pulled off a stunner to remove Virat Kohli and left even Kohli looking like the universe had glitched.
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Ian Smith framed it through context and reaction, the part that lingers longer than a replay. “Yeah, it was a group game, it was the first, and I was in the grand final. Of course, these two teams played each other twice in Dubai. But the reaction was the interesting thing.” Then came the line from Smith, “I remember Kohli’s reaction as if to say, no, you’re kidding me. You’re absolutely kidding me.”
That same disbelief, Smith suggested, returned instantly, just in a different flavour. “And that was the same reaction with the smile that came afterwards from Shubman Gill. At the other end, Rohit Sharma remembered it very well.”
Praising the brilliance of Phillips as a fielder, Smith further added, “You just don’t hit the ball within his range. Because he’s not normal, he’s not normal there.”
Bhogle’s follow-up landed like a stamp of greatness, reaching back to the original gold standard of closing off a region on the field. He invoked the Jonty Rhodes era, not as nostalgia, but as a measurement. “And Smithie, you saw the very, very young Jonty Rhodes at that 92 World Cup. And he just closed off that area. Phillips is the closest we’ve got to that.”
A dropped catch generally earns criticism, but this one didn’t. This one didn’t because of the brilliance Glenn Phillips displayed. He has time and again shown how supremely fit he is and has caught the imagination of even the opposition batters.
