Sunil Gavaskar’s advice for a struggling Virat Kohli to follow Sachin Tendulkar’s epic 241 in Sydney, where he didn’t play a single cover drive, was met with disapproval by the current megastar’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, who was far from amused by the suggestion. “Sunil Gavaskar has been a great player and his suggestions are always welcomed but I hope he suggests others also about their batting,” Sharma, a former Delhi off-spinner, who has coached Kohli since his pre-teen days told PTI on Tuesday.
To be fair, Gavaskar, first ever to score 10,000 Test runs and 34 hundreds, has not singled out Kohli but had spoken in detail about players also during his commentary stint.
“He has been performing well since 2008. It will be unfair to say that he is out of form on the basis of two innings. He has already scored a hundred in this series. How many players have got a hundred in the series?,” Sharma countered, citing his ward’s second-innings ton at Perth which came after India had secured a 300-plus lead.
To put things in perspective, Kohli’s first innings average in the 2024-25 season starting from the Bangladesh series is 73 runs in 8 completed innings with an average of 9.125. The sequence of scores are 6, 47, 0, 1, 4, 5, 7 and 3 (Brisbane first innings).
Does he feel bad that he has been criticised for not getting one fifty in eight consecutive Tests? “To be honest, I didn’t know much about the stats but the kind of player he is, he will bounce back. I think he is too good a player to be told anything and criticised because he has been the most consistent player in Indian cricket history,” the coach seemed a trifle indulgent.
Has it got more to do with mind rather than technique? “Nothing to do with the technique or even the mind, he is mature enough and understands the game,” he replied.
Sharma then revealed that he had spoken with Kohli, but chose not to disclose the details of their conversation to the media.
“We have been talking to each other and talked something that I wouldn’t say in public. But he is a mature enough player and knows where he is going wrong. He will bounce back and you’ll see that in the series itself.”
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