Sunil Gavaskar defends Virat Kohli ahead of BGT 2024-25 3rd Test, backs him to score four centuries in the series

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has put his weight behind Virat Kohli to bounce back stronger in the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia. Gavaskar has backed Kohli to score a total of four centuries in the five-match series.

Kohli scored an unbeaten 100 in the second innings of the opening Test match at Perth but failed to replicate the same show as he returned with scores of 7 and 11 in the pink-ball Test at Adelaide, which India lost by 10 wickets.

If Kohli scores a century at Brisbane, he will become the second overseas batter after Sir Alastair Cook to score a hundred at all five Test venues of Australia.

“If he scores a century in Brisbane, it will be great. It’s an incentive as well as you know that you join a club if you score a century in Brisbane, the one to score a century everywhere in Australia,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports show Game Plan.

“After that, going forward he will play in Melbourne and Sydney, where he has scored centuries. So he can score centuries there as well. It means he can score four centuries in the series,” the former India captain added.

On the other hand, Gavaskar noted that Sir Don Bradman, who averaged 99.94 in his glorious career, never had a series in which he scored runs in every Test match while defending Kohli’s twin failures at his happy hunting ground of Adelaide.

“Bradman too never had a series where he scored runs in all Test matches. You fail in an odd Test match. I hope that the failure in Adelaide will be compensated in the upcoming three Tests,” he said.

Kohli has scored only three Test centuries in the last five years but if he scores three tons in the rest of the series, it will put India in the driver’s seat. The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane from December 14.