Former India batting legend turned cricket commentator Sunil Gavaskar gave a strongly worded reply to Virat Kohli’s response to the critics over his strike rate after the IPL 2024 clash between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Ahmedabad on April 28.
Kohli’s performance came under scrutiny when scored 51 off 43 balls at a strike rate of 118.60 in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Uppal Stadium on April 25. However, the 35-year-old managed to silence his critics when he scored an unbeaten match-winning knock of 70 off 44 balls at a strike rate of 159.09 while chasing the 201-run target against Gujarat Titans.
Following his impressive innings against GT, the commentator asked Virat Kohli about his strike rate after the powerplay (1-6 overs) and against spin. In response to the question, the RCB batter stated that people are not qualified enough to sit and talk about his strike rate if they weren’t in that situation themselves.
Sunil Gavaskar unhappy with Kohli’s response to critics
Ahead of the IPL 2024 clash between RCB and GT, Sunil Gavaskar was disappointed with Virat Kohli’s response to the criticism over his strike rate. Former India batting legend slammed RCB batter for constantly responding to the outside noise despite saying he doesn’t care about it. He added that commentators don’t have any agendas against any player as they speak only about what is happening in front of them.
“When you talk about all these guys, they are like ‘Oh we don’t care about outside noise’. Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is.” Gavaskar said during a pre-match show on Star Sports.
“We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot. We (commentators) don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we speak about what is happening.” he added.
In the ongoing IPL season, Virat Kohli’s slow-paced innings have become a topic of debate as many cricket questioning his intention behind his approach. Kohli’s inclusion in the India squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 received mixed reactions due to his slowing down of his innings after the powerplay.
Virat Kohli regains his orange cap after 42-run innings vs GT
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli had a decent outing with the bat as he scored 42 off 27 balls during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 148-run chase against Gujarat Titans at M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Kohli formed a 92-run partnership with Faf du Plessis for the opening wicket until the RCB skipper was dismissed for 64. Thereafter, RCB suffered a collapse in their batting as they lost four wickets in Will Jacks (1), Rajat Patidar (2), Glenn Maxwell (4) and Cameron Green (1) for 19 runs and hosts were 111/5 in 9.5 overs.
Virat Kohli’s innings came to an end after he was dismissed by Noor Ahmed at 117/6. Thereafter, Dinesh Karthik (21*) and Swapnil Singh (15*) formed crucial unbeaten 35-run partnership for the seventh wicket to chase down the target.
Kohli dethroned Ruturaj Gaikwad in the Orange Cap race as he is currently leading run-scorer of the season, amassing 542 runs, including a century and four fifties, at an average of 67.75 and a strike rate of 148.09 in 11 matches.
