Not known to mince his words while opining on a topic, former Indian batter Gautam Gambhir was once interjected by former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis after the former questioned former India captain Virat Kohli‘s place in the Indian team.
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Not many months ago, Kohli was being criticized left, right, and centre, particularly for not having been able to score an international century across a period of three years, beginning November 2019.
However, the long-awaited drought did end in September last year after Kohli hit a maiden T20I century and a 71st international hundred against Afghanistan in Dubai.
Having come across as an individual who has criticized Kohli much more than other experts of the game in the eyes of fans, Gambhir perhaps acted a bit too salty with his criticisms on the night the right-handed batter had played a high-class knock in a format he was least expected to.
How Waqar Younis Defended Virat Kohli After Gautam Gambhir Questioned His Place
Citing example of players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, Gambhir was of the view that all such big players have been dropped from the team in the past. Also, he exclaimed that he doesn’t remember a single player who has survived in the Indian team without having scored a century for the past three years.
He was involved in an interaction with the Star Sports Network, with the likes of Waqar Younis and renowned presenter Mayanti Langar alongside him.
“Let’s be fair and absolutely dead honest. I don’t think anyone in that dressing room would have survived three years without a hundred. People like Ashwin, Rahane, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul have been dropped. I don’t remember one guy who hasn’t been dropped after not scoring a hundred in three years. It is only Virat Kohli.”
‘You Cannot Really Compare Virat With Any One of Them” – Waqar Younis
Unimpressed with Gambhir’s opinion, Waqar interrupted Gambhir and simply stated that Kohli’s quality is not comparable to any of the players the former had just mentioned.
He further added that Kohli was still getting the runs that his team required of him, and he was not really playing poorly to have deserved an axing from the side.
“Gautam just mentioned a few names of people, all international players. But, I feel that you cannot really compare Virat with any one of them. The kind of reputation, the runs he’s got and he wasn’t playing badly. That’s the reason nobody can touch him. He was still getting runs which his team needed at times.”
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Post his maiden T20I century, Kohli yet again gave it back to his detractors by emerging as the highest run-geter during ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
He had amassed 296 runs across six innings, at a stellar average of 98.66 and with the help of four half-centuries.
