While Virat Kohli has ended his century drought, returning to his “form”, former India batsman and now a renowned pundit, Gautam Gambhir, has taken a dig at Kohli, saying that no other Indian cricket has ever gotten such a long rope as the 33-year-old did in the last two years.
The gap between Kohli’s 70th and 71st international century had extended to 1020 days, which is over three years, and even if you ignore those few months in 2020 when play didn’t happen because of the pandemic, this is still a long time for a batsman to go without a three-figure score and still be in the team across all three formats.
Should Virat Kohli had been dropped?
In terms of innings, it took Kohli 83 international innings, plus three seasons of the IPL where he mostly opened for RCB, to get the century monkey off his back.
“Three years is a very long time. It’s not three months. And I’m not trying to be critical of him but he has earned that just because he has got loads of runs in the past. But I don’t think so that any of the young batters would have survived in international cricket had they not got a hundred in three years,” Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports.
Don’t think anyone would have survived three years without a hundred: Gambhir
Gambhir went on to name a few Indian players – Ashwin, Rahane, Pujara, even Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul – who were dropped from one format or other owing to dip in form and numbers for a few series.
“Eventually it had to happen and it happened at the right time as well. You are just approaching the T20 World Cup and he’s got a hundred so he has got the monkey off his back. But let’s be fair and absolutely honest, I don’t think anyone in the dressing room would have survived three years without a hundred.
“People like Ashwin, Rahane, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have been dropped. I haven’t known one guy who hasn’t been dropped after not having scored a hundred in three years. It is only Virat Kohli and he has earned that,” Gambhir added.
As Gambhir said, Kohli’s century has come at the right time for India because the T20 World Cup is a little over a month away. Kohli finished the Asia Cup 2022 with 276 runs in 5 innings with the help of 2 fifties and a century.
