Virat Kohli has gone through a transformation from fitness point of view, opines Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir opened up on his verbal spat with Virat Kohli during the 2013 edition of the tournament recently. Gambhir also praised Virat Kohli saying that he has gone through a terrific transformation from a fitness point of view and has also done a tremendous amount of work on his skills.
Virat Kohli is considered one of the best batsmen around the world. Especially he is terrific white-ball cricket. Kohli has 12311 runs from 260 ODIs with an average of 58.07. Several former cricketers have praised Kohli and Gautam Gambhir is the new name to join the bandwagon. Gambhir opined that Kohli has transformed into a brilliant player from a fitness point of view and has also put tremendous work on his skill.
"That's why there was nothing personal and there never will be personal against Virat Kohli. And I say it again and again that what he's achieved, I am absolutely not surprised. That's the kind of player he was when we saw him early but what he's transformed into, I think from a fitness point of view and the way he's worked on his skills is tremendous,” Gambhir said to Jatin Sapru on his show ‘Over and Out’.
IPL had always witnessed some memorable or controversial moments. In the 2013 edition of the tournament, Gambhir and Kohli got into a verbal spat in a fixture between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gambhir opened up onto the incident saying that sometimes personal relationships are out of the equation whenever a player is leading the side and he has no regret about the incident.
"That's OK, I am absolutely fine with it and I expect him to be like that. I am like that. I like that contest, I like people who are competitive. MS Dhoni is a competitor in his own way, Virat is a competitor in his own way,” he stated.
“Sometimes when you are leading the side, you have to do it even if you don't want to do it because you want your team to play the way you want. As a leader, sometimes you are not thinking about personal relationships with the other guy just because you are leading a team, you have to do it.”
Kohli has been playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore and he led the franchise for seven seasons. Kohli then resigned from the leadership role of RCB after IPL 2021. He was retained before the mega auction for the upcoming season and will now play under the leadership of Faf Du Plessis.