India legend Sunil Gavaskar believes that the reason behind Virat Kohli’s consistency is that the right-handed batter plays according to the situation of the match rather than trying to create an image for himself.
Speaking on JioHotstar, Gavaskar said: “The thing about him is that he’s not tied down to an image. A lot of batters, a lot of bowlers are tied down to an image. That this is the way, you know, they are perceived, and so they should stick to that. I don’t think it is tied down to an image. He’s tied down to the job at hand. The job at hand is to score runs, maybe watchfully to start with, and then open out, or score bang-bang at the start and then spread the field and then look for the ones and twos. He’s not tied down by any image, and that is the reason he is consistent.”
Kohli played yet another superb innings, notching up his 85th international century against New Zealand in the final ODI of the three-match series in Indore, but it came in a losing cause as, apart from Nitish Kumar Reddy (53) and Harshit Rana (52), none of the other batters was able to put up a fight with him.
Kohli scored 124 off 108 balls, including 10 fours and three sixes, at a strike rate of 114.81. He was eventually caught by Daryl Mitchell off the bowling of Kristian Clarke after mistiming a shot.
Gavaskar also revealed what young players should learn from the 37-year-old.
“Apart from his talent, of course, and temperament. And when I said not tied down by image, I talk about the temperament. Temperament is not to say, ‘Oh, I’m expected to hit the six.’ It’s not that. He will watch it and do it, and he never gives up. He refuses to give up. So even till the end, he was trying that a little tired shot. Sometimes you know the gloves can get a bit sweaty, and so the grip on the handle would have gone a little bit awry. And that’s why, instead of going straight, the bad face turned up and he was caught inside the boundary. For me, this is the important thing to learn for any youngster, not to live up to an image, play the situation, and you will be more consistent than ever hoped for,” he added.
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