Sunil Gavaskar compares Virat Kohli to Tennis greats (Source: Twitter)
Star India batter Virat Kohli got back to his very best in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. After his dismissal on a score of five runs in the first innings of the Perth Test, Kohli managed to stay unbeaten on a score of 100 runs in the second innings of the game, scoring the 81st ton of his international career.
It is worth noting that Kohli had been suffering through a run of poor form for quite some time; the ace batter failed to perform for India in their recent whitewash against New Zealand at home. However, coming back to their favourite hunting ground in Australia, Kohli managed to notch up a century in Perth.
Talking about his performance, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar took centre stage and compared Virat Kohli to tennis legends like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, as when they do not lift titles, people think that they are out of form.
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“It’s like 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‘,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by News24.
“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. But then again, Indian fans, they’re greedy fans. They’re not going to be happy with their idol scoring only 60-70s. They want their icons, their idols, to score hundreds, and that is the reason there was this little talk about, ‘Oh, he hasn’t got a hundred since July 2023.’ July 2023 is just about a year ago,” he added.
Australia has always been one of Kohli’s favourite places to play cricket; the ace batter has often managed to topple the Aussies in their own backyard. With a dominant win in the first Test secured, India will hope for a similar performance in the second Test as well.