Gautam Gambhir made a very touching gesture when he gave his Man of the Match award to a young 21-year-old Virat Kohli. Gambhir recalled this incident which was of an ODI in 2009 against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens.
Electing to bat first, Sri Lanka had piled up 315 runs courtesy of Upul Tharanga’s 118. India in reply, lost Tendulkar and Sehwag’s wickets early on, but the numbers 3 and 4, Gautam Gambhir and Kohli, put up a mammoth stand of 224 runs.
Kohli scored his maiden international century, dismissed for 107, while Gambhir carried on to complete the chase, remaining unbeaten on 150. The left-hander was rewarded with the Man of the Match award, however, he asked Kohli to come up and handed him his award.
This gesture by the southpaw won the hearts of the fans. Then, in the post-match presentation, Gautam Gambhir had said that Kohli took the pressure off him and hence deserved the award equally.
Recalling the same, now, recently speaking with host Jatin Sapru, Gambhir revealed that since it was Kohli’s maiden century for India, it was really special and hence he gave him his award. The former KKR captain also believes that Kohli will match Tendulkar’s record of 100 international tons.
“I didn’t do anything I shouldn’t have done. You might go on to score 100 international hundreds, which I am sure he will because that’s the kind of player he is but you will always remember your first international hundred. I remember my first international hundred that was in Bangladesh and the first ODI hundred against Sri Lanka,” Gautam Gambhir said.
“So I wanted to make it special for him and that’s not something I or anyone else shouldn’t have done. That’s the kind of nature I have and that’s the kind of player he was. And what he has done, I am absolutely not surprised with what he’s achieved, and he’ll go on to achieve many more things,” the commentator explained.
