Former India opener Aakash Chopra has given a new twist to Virat Kohli's “fake fielding” saga after he backed Bangladesh's claim that the talismanic batter “cheated” on the field.

“Yes, that was 100 percent fake fielding because of the way Kohli attempted to throw the ball. If the umpires had seen him do that, we would've been slapped with a five-run penalty and we've won by five runs only. So we escaped here but next time if someone does this then the umpires will have to be more careful. So are Bangladesh right? Yes, they are but nobody noticed it then so can't do anything now,” Aakash Chopra said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

Aakash Chopra's claims, however, appear to be contrary to what the ICC's rules state.

According to cricket's global governing body, the umpires can levy a five-run penalty on the opposition team if a player or a group of players are seen making a deliberate attempt to distract, deceive, or obstruct the batter of a batting side.

In Virat Kohli's case, multiple videos showed that he neither “distracted nor deceived or obstructed” any Bangladeshi batsman.

Aakash Chopra's comments came a day after Virat Kohli found himself on top of the trending charts on Twitter following Bangladesh cricketer Nurul Hasan's accusations against him.

The Bangladesh wicketkeeper batter alleged that Team India's talisman cheated in his team's five-run loss to the Men in Blue in Adelaide in the crucial Group 2 game of the T20 World Cup on Wednesday.

The incident happened to have taken place in the seventh over the Bangla Tigers' run chase. With Bangladesh chasing India's steep total of 184, Litton Das was going all guns blazing, smashing the opposition's bowlers all over the park. In the process, Litton Das struck a shot in the deep and as Arshdeep Singh threw the ball back toward India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, who was fielding at point, feigned to have collected it before taking a shot at the non-striker's end.

But as nobody noticed the controversial episode, the on-field umpires, Chris Brown and Marais Erasmus, didn't take any kind of action.

However, the decision of the umpires left Nurul Hasan fuming who subsequently raised the matter in his interaction with the media after the game.

“We all saw that it was a wet ground,” Nurul Hasan said. “Eventually, when we talk about these things, there was also a fake throw. It could have been a five-run penalty. That also could have gone our way, but unfortunately, even that didn't materialise.”

Interestingly, Aakash Chopra's fellow cricket pundit Harsha Bhogle had a different take on the matter.

Speaking about the controversy on Twitter, Harsha Bhogle took a jibe at the Shakib Al Hasan-led side as he declared that the row was created just to divert attention from their defeat to India.

“So, for my friends in Bangladesh, please don't look at fake fielding or wet conditions as a reason for not reaching the target. If one of the batters had stayed till the end, Bangladesh could have won it. We are all guilty of it….when we search for excuses, we don't grow,” Harsha Bhogle tweeted.

Harsha Bhogle further said, “On the fake fielding incident, the truth is that nobody saw it. The umpires didn't, the batters didn't and we didn't either. Law 41.5 does make provision for penalising fake fielding (the umpire still has to interpret it thus) but no one saw it. So what do you do!”

Meanwhile, legendary Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis said that the India superstar shouldn't have intimidated the on-field umpires with his gestures.

Waqar Younis added that Virat Kohli's stature is so big that even the umpires are under pressure when he's indicating something to them and that's why he should allow them to do their job.

“Shakib is telling him that ‘you bat, and let umpires do their job'. I think they are discussing, what we were talking about. If you are going to call something and are going to put pressure on the umpire…then of course, he is a big name. Virat Kohli is a big name. He is a massive name in cricket so umpire sometimes come under pressure,” Waqar Younis said in an interaction with A Sports.

On the other hand, Waqar Younis' former teammate, retired all-rounder Shahid Afridi accused the ICC of conspiring to ensure India's participation in the knock-out stages of the T20 World Cup.

Shahid Afridi even claimed that Virat Kohli attempted to hoodwink the Bangladeshi team and create an opportunity to run out one of their batters.

“Given the amount of rain that happened, the (India v Bangladesh) game (still) resumed immediately after the break. It is very evident that that ICC, with India playing…there is pressure that comes with it, there are many factors involved,” a fuming Shahid Afridi said.