Sunil Gavaskar’s suggestion that a struggling Virat Kohli should draw motivation from Sachin Tendulkar’s breathtaking 241-run marathon in Sydney, where he did not play even a single cover drive, was met with vehement disapproval by Rajkumar Sharma, childhood coach of the current megastar, who found the suggestion far from amusing. “Sunil Gavaskar is a great player and his suggestions will always be welcomed but to me, it seems that he should advise others also about their batting.” Sharma, former off-spinner from Delhi who has coached Kohli since his pre-teen days, told PTI on Tuesday.
To be fair, Gavaskar, being the first ever to score 10,000 Test runs and 34 hundreds, has not restricted his comments to Kohli but elaborated on players also during his commentary stint.
He has been performing well since 2008. It would be very unfair to say that he is out of form just because of those two innings. In this very series, he has already scored one hundred. How many have scored a hundred in this series?,” Sharma countered citing this ward’s second innings ton at Perth that came after India had built a more than a 300 lead.
To put things into context, Kohli’s first innings average in the 2024-25 season so far, starting with the Bangladesh series, is 73 runs in 8 completed innings for an average of 9.125. The sequence of scores: 6, 47, 0, 1, 4, 5, 7 and 3 (first innings Brisbane).
Does he feel bad that he is being criticized for going eight Tests without a fifty? “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 criticized because he has been the most consistent player in Indian cricket history,” the coach seemed a little indulgent.
It is really about the mind than technique? “Nothing to do with the technique or even the mind, he is mature enough and understands the game,” he replied.
Sharma further included that he spoke to Kohli about it but that he would not like to make it public with what they discussed.
“We have been talking to each other and talked about 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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