Bengaluru: The controversy over Virat Kohli’s ‘slow’ strike rate refuses to die.
In the latest episode of Kohli versus Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary opener of yesteryears on Saturday hit back at the modern-day batting superstar.
Gavaskar, during his commentary stint during the IPL match on April 25, criticised Kohli’s pace of scoring. Though Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) went on to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) that night in Hyderabad, Kohli scored a comparatively slow 51 off 43 balls (strike rate 118) as his team batted first.
Three days later, Kohli smashed an unbeaten 70 off 44 balls (strike rate 159) as RCB toppled Gujarat Titans’ total of 200/3. Asked about his innings, Kohli took a dig at critics – seemingly directed at Gavaskar – for sitting and speaking about the game “from a box” without “having been in that situation.”
Kohli’s comments didn’t go down well with Gavaskar, who lashed out at the former Team India and RCB captain before the start of the return game against Gujarat at M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Gavaskar said that commentators criticised him only when he got out before the slog overs after registering a strike rate of below 120.
“Commentators questioned only when the strike rate was 118… I don’t watch too many matches, so I don’t know if the other commentators said otherwise. But if you have a strike of 118 and then you get out in the 14th or 15th over with a strike rate of 118, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different. That’s different,” Gavaskar said bluntly.
The world’s first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket also pulled up Kohli for his hypocrisy.
“All these guys talk about, ‘oh we don’t care about outside noise’. Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We 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 actually speak on what is happening,” said Gavaskar.
It remains to be seen if Kohli responds to Sunny again, or the two champion batters decide to bury the hatchet.
