T20 World Cup: Gambhir takes swipe at Kohli, urges batters to put team over personal records

Former India batter Gautam Gambhir reiterated the need for batters to not focus on personal milestones and instead look to make an impact and win matches for his country.

Gambhir’s comments, made during a Star Sports show before the India-Australia warm-up clash on Monday, appeared a swipe at Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli, who has shaken off the rust and rediscovered his old touch in recent outings. Kohli scored his first international century in nearly three years against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup and followed it up with a 63 and an unbeaten against Australia and South Africa respectively at home.

“A batter’s job is to score runs. A bowler’s is to take wickets. And score runs that helps your team win. Not runs that simply help you break records, or score fifties and hundreds. Even a 40 or a 30 is good so long as it helps the team reach a score of 170-180. When you’re chasing, your runs should take the pressure off the lower middle order.

“If the team wins, then that is your legacy. If you scoring 500 runs doesn’t help your team qualify, then those runs carry no value other than adding to your record. You face as much criticism as the rest of the team does,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

Gambhir, who captained India in six ODIs, knows a thing or two about impact knocks in the big matches. The former Kolkata Knight Riders captain after all, starred in India’s victories in the 2007 World T20 final as well as in the 2011 ODI World Cup, scoring 75 and 97 respectively.

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