Legendary Sunil Gavaskar heaped praise on Virat Kohli after he scored an unbeaten knock of 100 in the second innings of the opening Test match against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar trophy at Optus Stadium, Perth, which India won convincingly by 295 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Kohli was dismissed after scoring five runs in the first innings by Josh Hazlewood but Gavaskar noted that the batter’s body looked relaxed when he walked out to bat with India dominating at 275-2 in the second essay.
The former Indian skipper scored his 30th Test century and his seventh hundred against Australia in Australia. Kohli’s footwork was up to the mark in the second dig as he scored his second century at Perth.
Gavaskar said on Star Sports, “His body was completely relaxed when he came into bat in the second innings. In the first innings, because of the fact that India had lost two wickets early, he would have also been under pressure.
“In that second innings, you could sense apart from changing that stance, I think he also got his legs, which were maybe just a little bit wider at the start. Just a little bit, maybe I’m thinking too much, but that little thing might have given him that height he wanted. Well, in Australia, on the bouncier pitches, you need that edge,” the 75-year-old went on to add.
On the other hand, the Little Master compared Virat Kohli with the Big 3 – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Gavaskar highlighted that people considered the trio as out of form when they could not go all the way in Slams. Similarly, he feels Kohli was not out of form when he wasn’t consistently scoring centuries at the top level.
“I said in commentary that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafa Nadal, they are title winners. If they lose in the semi-finals, people say, ‘Oh, they’re not in form.’ Anybody else getting into the semi-finals, you would say, ‘Oh, what a wonderful performance’.
“Similarly, with Virat Kohli, because everybody is so used to him scoring so many hundreds quite regularly, when he doesn’t score 100, even if he’s getting 70-80 — which a lot of guys will be very happy to get — people say, ‘Look, he’s not scoring runs.’ And that is the reason why there was that feeling,” he concluded.
The second Test match between Australia and India, which will be a pink-ball game, will be played at Adelaide Oval from December 6 onwards.
