Former Indian Test opener Sadagopan Ramesh took a subtle dig at Sanjay Manjrekar for his recent comments. Ramesh said the ODI format looks easy only because of how Virat Kohli performs.
Manjrekar recently expressed his disappointment after Virat Kohli’s decision to retire from Test cricket. The former right-hander said he is surprised that Kohli has decided to continue playing ODI cricket, which is the easiest format for any top-order batter.
Meanwhile, Kohli continued his red-hot form, scoring a match-winning knock of 93 runs off just 91 balls in the opening ODI against New Zealand.
Ramesh said on his YouTube Channel, “Some say he has picked the easiest format to continue playing. That’s not at all the case. The format looks easy only because of how Virat Kohli performs. Because he literally scores 50s and 100s for fun, it looks like an easy format from the outside. Everyone plays this format, yet no one is able to produce like Virat Kohli.”
“Since the Champions Trophy last year, Virat Kohli has averaged 93 in seven innings. Though it’s the same number that gave us pain yesterday, this time the number gives us happiness. We can say one elephant easily lifts a tree, but it looks easy only because it’s an elephant. But others can’t even move the tree, so when it comes to international cricket, every format has its challenges.”
Ramesh said it is not easy being Virat Kohli as the talisman batter always has high expectations.
“Firstly, it’s not easy even being a Virat Kohli because of the massive expectations. Such players scoring a 50 or a 100 gets dismissed as normal but their failures turn into national headlines. Because a slight slight up becomes a national trend, performing time and again under that kind of pressure is a huge challenge for these legends. So it’s not easy to be a Virat Kohli,” said Ramesh (via the aforementioned source).
He added, “Yes, everyone will feel sad if he doesn’t reach 100 centuries. But, to me, Virat Kohli is like an ocean, where if there are one or two misses, and he doesn’t reach 100 hundreds, I’ll give him a 100/100.”
The second ODI between India and New Zealand will be played at Rajkot on Wednesday.
