Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli get into war of words over ‘strike rate’ debate

It’s not often that Virat Kohli goes off on live television, but in the aftermath of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s clash against Gujarat Titans on April 28, the former India and RCB skipper took shots at his critics for hounding him over his strike rate against spin. 

Speaking to the host broadcaster Star Sports, Kohli went on a mini rant after smashing 70* off 44 against the Titans, 61 of which came against spin at a strike rate of 179.41.

"Not really, I think all the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones who love talking about this stuff. But, for me, it's about winning the game for the team. And there is a reason you have done this for 15 years," Kohli said after the GT game.

"You have done this, day in and day out. You have won games for your team. And I am not quite sure if you have not been in that situation yourself, to sit and speak about the game from a box.

“People can sit and talk about their own ideas and assumptions of the game. But those who have done it, day in and day out, they know what they are doing. It's kind of muscle memory for me.”

Kohli’s words have ended up triggering a verbal war as former India skipper and renowned commentator Sunil Gavaskar, who is a part of the official commentary panel for IPL 2024, has now fired back shots at the RCB batter, claiming that all that the commentators and experts do is state facts. 

Prior to RCB’s clash against GT on April 4 (Saturday), Gavaskar, in an explosive rant, questioned the intent behind Kohli’s comments and asserted that neither him nor any of the other commentators operate with agendas.

“Commentators questioned only when his strike-rate was 118,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

“I’m not too sure. I don’t watch too many matches, so I don’t know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you come and open and then have a strike of 118 when you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different. That’s different.

“All these guys talk about, ‘oh we don’t care about outside noise’. Accha? Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening,” he added.

Gavaskar also took aim at Star Sports and lambasted the host broadcaster for seemingly glorifying Kohli’s interview. The former India skipper suggested that Star were downgrading their own commentators by replaying Kohli’s interview multiple times.

"That particular post-game interview has been shown on this channel earlier as well, right now, on this particular program it has probably been shown half a dozen times," he said. 

"I hope that Star Sports recognises that when that is being shown, asking where are the critics, the critics are the commentators. Your Star Sports commentators are the ones from whom the questions are being asked.

“For you [Star] to show the person belittling your own commentators, I’m not sure that’s a great thing. You need to realise you have shown it enough times, everybody’s got the message. I would be very disappointed if you show it once more.”

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