Virat Kohli scored 45 runs in the first innings of ongoing Mohali Test against Sri Lanka.
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar on Friday (4th March) lashed out at the critics for calling Virat Kohli ‘out of touch'. He said that the former Indian skipper is scoring half-centuries regularly.
Kohli not scoring century since 2019 has been the biggest talk of the town. It isn’t exactly that he’s out of form but the former Indian Test skipper has been failing to convert his starts into big scores after doing all the hard work.
In the first innings of the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka, which is also his 100th match, Virat scored 45 runs. Coming to bat at No.4, the 33-year-old looked in great touch and played some fluent drives.
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With the sort of determination and patience he played, many felt that he will end his century drought. But that wasn’t the case as he was cleaned up by left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya after playing 76 balls.
Kohli also has been at the receiving end of criticism for not scoring a century for a while. The former captain has failed to hit a century since November 2019. Many fans and pundits have raised concerns over his form and feel that his numbers in the last two years are not promising as per the player of his calibre.
Speaking to Star Sports at Tea Break on Day 1 of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka, Sunil Gavaskar slammed all the critics related to Virat Kohli's form. He said that despite not scoring a century for a long time, the Delhi-born batter is scoring regular 50s and one cannot say that he’s out of touch.
“He's been scoring a lot more than what I did in those 3 years. He is getting regular half-centuries or scores of 70-80 every alternate game. He is not getting the hundred. So you can't say he is out of touch. Like I have been saying, the first mistake that he makes is turning out to be the last mistake,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar further talked about Kohli’s dismissal in the ongoing first Test against Sri Lank in Mohali. He highlighted that the veteran batter played for the trajectory and his wicket was merely bad luck.
“I think over here is played for the trajectory. You can that it was a flatter delivery and he could have played forward to it, but he played back. And with that backlift coming only a little bit across allowed the ball to sneak past the outside edge and hit the off stump. It was a matter of luck. It happens to the best,” he said.
Notably, Virat Kohli completed the milestone of 8000 runs in Test cricket during his 45-run knock in the first innings against Sri Lanka. He became the sixth Indian batter to achieve the feat.
(Star Sports inputs)