Virat Kohli recently hit the purple patch. The Indian skipper scored 2 centuries in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand and won the ‘Man of the Series’ award as well. But, former Indian cricketer and Under-19 coach Rahul Dravid made a big statement on him at the Bangalore Literature Festival on October 29. Dravid said that he feels Kohli’s statements were ‘outrageous’ at times and also they made him ‘cringe’.
“Virat sometimes comes across as outrageous and I cringe on reading his statements before a series. But if he can bring the best out of himself by needling the opposition, so be it,” Dravid said.
“It was very very unfortunate for Anil and not fair on him at all. What’s the reality and what happens behind the closed door, I don’t want to comment on that. But that was definitely an unfortunate episode and especially for someone like Anil who has been an absolute legend to the game. Someone who has done more than anybody to win Test matches for India and also had a successful year as coach of India,” Dravid told India Today.
Dravid also expressed his views on the issue of Anil Kumble not being selected that the national team’s coach. He said, “At the end of the day, I don’t know the specifics of that particular issue, but it shouldn’t have got played out in the way that it did,”.
Here’s the video of Dravid with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s book launch in Bangalore Literature Festival –
“So, what’s the reality of it and what happens behind closed doors is not something I’m privy to, so I can’t comment directly. But it was definitely an unfortunate episode, especially to someone like Anil who has been an absolute legend of the game, someone who has done more to win Test matches for India than anybody I know. And he had a successful year as coach as well. But the fact is that it should never have played out the way that it did, publicly,” he added.
Kohli broke a number of records in the 3rd ODI at Kanpur as he became the quickest to score 9,000 ODI runs surpassing AB de Villiers. This is his 5th ODI bilateral series win on the trot as captain of Team India. The 28-year-old has 32 ODI centuries and is now only behind India’s cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar in terms of most ODI centuries.
