Sunil Gavaskar dismissed speculation about Virat Kohli’s retirement after the batter registered two consecutive ducks against Australia. The former India captain clarified that Kohli’s gesture of raising his gloves in Adelaide was simply a response to the crowd’s applause, not a farewell signal.
Gavaskar pointed out that Kohli, who has amassed over 14,000 ODI runs, 52 hundreds in the format, and 32 in Tests, remains one of India’s most prolific players. He noted that a couple of low scores should not fuel unnecessary assumptions about his future. Gavaskar then insisted that the star batter has plenty of cricket left and could return strongly in the upcoming Sydney match.
“Look, the man has more than 14,000 runs, 52 ODI centuries and I think 32 Test centuries. He has scored thousands and thousands of runs, so he is allowed a couple of failures,” Gavaskar said while speaking to Sports Tak.
“Don’t read too much into what has happened; there is plenty of cricket left, plenty of cricket ahead. Maybe Sydney will see a big innings from him. Adelaide, of course, has been his favourite ground in Australia, both at the Test level and in ODIs,” he continued.
“He (Kohli) has scored hundreds there, so naturally, everyone was expecting a big one here as well. But that did not quite happen,” the former cricketer added.
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Virat Kohli returned for just four balls in the second ODI at Adelaide after an eight-ball duck in Perth. Coming in after Shubman Gill’s dismissal in the seventh over, he left the first three balls outside off stump. The fourth delivery, seaming back unexpectedly, beat his defence and struck his pads.
Australia sealed the win with just under 4 overs remaining, finishing at 265/8. Despite strong batting performances from Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, and Axar Patel, India’s efforts fell short. Matthew Short’s 74 and Cooper Connolly’s 61* proved decisive for Australia.
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