Kohli’s approach against slow bowling has been the subject of much debate during the ongoing IPL. The India great has long scored more quickly against fast bowling than against spin, with a strike rate of 135.7 against the tweakers in IPL 2024, compared to 157.7 against pacers. Some pundits have questioned his place in India’s T20 World Cup plans – notably, Sanjay Manjrekar omitted him from his ideal squad for this summer’s tournament.
Kohli has retained his place in India’s squad, and tore into critics questioning his numbers following Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s win over Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad earlier this week. Kohli made 70* in 44 balls, increasing his strike rate against spin, and sits at the top of the scoring charts for IPL 2024. “All the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones who love talking about this stuff,” he said. “But for me, it’s just about winning the game for the team.”
Ahead of RCB’s next game, in the reverse fixture against Gujarat Titans, Star Sports, repeatedly replayed Kohli’s interview during their pre-match programme, earning the ire of Gavaskar, who is employed by the broadcaster for their pre-game, mid-innings and post-match shows.
Gavaskar lambasted the channel for showing the clip “half a dozen times”, saying that doing so served to undermine Star Sports’ own commentary team.
“That particular post-game interview has been shown on this channel earlier as well, right now, on this particular programme 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.”
He went on to defend his own criticism of Kohli, explaining that it came when the opener’s strike rate against spin was lower than its current number, and also warned against any suggestion that personal bias was at play.
“If you have a strike rate of 118, you come and face the first ball, and then you get out in the 14th or 15th over and your strike rate is 118 – if you want applause for that, then that’s a little bit different,” he said. “But for Star Sports to show the person belittling their own commentators, I’m not sure that’s a great thing. So I think Star Sports needs to understand that they have shown it enough times, everyone’s got the message.
“We’ve all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket, but we speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes or dislikes, we actually speak on what’s happening. So, I would be very disappointed if Star Sports show this once more because that will be questioning all us commentators.”
