Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar stated that there was a time when Virat Kohli was scoring hundreds just every other innings.
Kohli has scored his last International hundred back in 2019 when he scored a century against Bangladesh in the pink-ball Test match against Bangladesh in Kolkata.
Since then Kohli hasn’t scored his much-awaited 71st century. Meanwhile, Kohli recently gave up his captaincy duties but he always performed up to the mark as a batter when he was leading the team.
Kohli led the national team in 68 Test matches out of which the side won 40 matches, lost 17 and drew 11 games. Thus, Kohli is India’s most successful Test captain. The leadership got the best out of Kohli as he scored 5864 runs in 68 matches at an average of 54.80. Furthermore, Kohli scored a truckload of runs in the ODI format as an Indian captain.
Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports, “Kohli, when he was captain, he showed that there were no effects of the burden of captaincy. He was reeling off hundreds just every other innings. So don’t think captaincy was ever a burden on him.”
“As a captain what happens is that you are concerned about everybody else. It’s just a natural thing, you are concerned about your bowlers’ forms, maybe there is a slight niggle injury, as a batting unit maybe your No.4 or No.5 are not getting the runs, getting out badly.
Meanwhile, as Kohli has relinquished his captaincy duties from all three formats of the game, the Little Master reckons he can concentrate fully on his batting as he wouldn’t have the extra pressure of leading.
“So you might be scoring runs yourselves as a captain but you are always concerned about everybody else in the team. That is where you can’t focus on your batting. As not a captain, you can focus entirely on your batting. That is the biggest advantage that you can have.
“But now I think it’s a question of him getting used to the fact that he is not calling the shots. As long as he is delivering the shots with the bat, nothing else is mattering,” Gavaskar concluded.
Kohli’s 100th Test match will be played at Mohali on 4th March.
