Gautam Gambhir responds to Brad Hodge's jibe at Kohli

Gautam Gambhir responds to Brad Hodge's jibe at Kohli

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Gautam Gambhir has hit back at Brad Hodge over his remarks that Virat Kohli had missed the Dharamsala Test to recover in time for the IPL. Gambhir said that such statements are made only to get into the headlines and criticized Hodge for speculating without knowing the full extent of Kohli's injury.

Virat Kohli injured his shoulder while trying to stop a boundary during the third Test against Australia in Ranchi and the injury resulted in the Indian captain having to sit out the final Test in Dharamsala.

Recently, Brad Hodge had claimed that Kohli had missed the crucial Test in order to regain full fitness ahead of the IPL that starts on April 5. "You'd hope as a sportsman that he's seriously injured, Because if you miss one game of Test match cricket and you're fronting up the next week for RCB [Royal Challengers Bangalore] versus whoever ... you'd be pretty dirty if he didn't front up to a Test match and try and win a valuable series against Australia," Hodge had said.

Following this comment, Gambhir has stood up for his Delhi teammate saying there was no way Kohli could have played the last Test. CNN News-18 quoted Gambhir saying, "I feel someone who is playing for the country and captaining India would never want to miss a Test match and would definitely want to play for India more than any other tournament. That has always been the case and knowing Virat, he would have never done that.”

Gambhir also added that such statements are made only to grab headlines and one should not talk about something unless they're well-informed about it. "Look if you just want to be in headlines you can say anything you would want to. It's just about making a headline or trying to get your name in the press, you could make such statements as well. But if you don't know the person, you don't know the extent of the injury, you should not be talking about it," Gambhir concluded.

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