Former India opener Gautam Gambhir suggested that things would not have been same if some young player didn’t score a century in about three years like Virat Kohli, who got backing from the team management during his lean patch. Kohli ended his century drought on Thursday and he chose the T20I format to do so and slam his maiden ton in the shortest format of international cricket.
The premier batter scored unbeaten 122 runs against Afghanistan as India ended their Asia Cup 2022 campaign with a consolation victory.
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In the absence of skipper Rohit Sharma, Kohli was asked to open the innings alongside stand-in captain KL Rahul. The duo shared a sensational 119-run stand to put India into the driver’s seat as Afghanistan were under pressure straight away.
Kohli’s knock was laced with 12 fours and 6 sixes as Afghanistan bowlers had no answer to his masterclass.
Gambhir feels that three years time is a long time for any batter to not score a century but he also feels that Kohli earned the backing of team management after scoring big runs in the past.
“Look, he has to realize that it has been three years, not just three months. Three years is a very long time. I am not going to be critical of him but he has earned this backing as he has scored loads of runs in the past,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.
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However, Gambhir said that Kohli’s century drought ended at the right time.
“I don’t think any younger player would have survived in international cricket had they not got a 100 in the last three years. This eventually had to happen and it has happened just at the right time. But let’s be fair, I don’t think anyone would have survived for this long,” he added.
Kohli’s 70st international century came way back in November 2019 in the day-night Test against Bangladesh. However, the former India captain continued scoring half-centuries during that phase and on Thursday he said that he was surprised by people’s opinions when he was getting 60s and they were touted as failures.
“What surprised me was my 60s became failures; quite shocking for me, batting pretty well and contributing but doesn’t seem to be enough,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.
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