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Sunil Gavaskar Suggests Virat Kohli Can Be India’s Third Opener For T20 WC
By CricShots - Sep 10, 2022 12:30 pm
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Legendary Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar has opined that Virat Kohli will be scoring more centuries in the shortest format of the game for India after the star batter ended the long wait for his 71st international hundred as he reached the three-figure mark for the first time in T20Is.  Gavaskar also opened up on Kohli’s long hundred drought, saying that there wasn’t any monkey on his back as the India star had the experience of scoring 70 international centuries across Test and ODIs.

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli scored his 71st international century

During a recent chat with India Today, Sunil Gavaskar said, “Look, anybody who has got 70 hundred, there wasn’t any monkey on his back. With 70 hundred, he knows what he is capable of. The only thing is, this was his first hundred in the ultra-short format of the game. Don’t be surprised if we see more centuries from him in the T20I format of the game as he goes along.”

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He further added, “Any batter when he is expected to get hundreds, when he doesn’t a century, people start to wonder. Even in this period, look at the number of 50s, 70s, and 80s he got. It wasn’t like he wasn’t getting runs at all, he was getting them, but he was also not quite able to go from that to get to a hundred.”

sunil gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar

The long wait for a century from Virat Kohli ended when he struck a high-quality 122 to take India to 212 for two against Afghanistan and lighten up the dead rubber of the Asia Cup in Dubai. His unbeaten effort off 61 balls got him his first hundred since November 2019 and 71st overall, equaling Ricky Ponting’s tally of international hundreds.

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Virat Kohli is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar on the all-time list. It was raining boundaries in the last five overs as Kohli reached the elusive three-figure mark with a crisp pull shot off pacer Fareed Ahmed. He took his helmet off and smiled before kissing his necklace as part of his celebration.