‘Scoring 25 thousand runs is no joke’ - Gautam Gambhir lauds Virat Kohli after latter achieves another historic milestone

Despite scoring only 44 and 20 in the first and second innings of the second Test in Delhi, Virat Kohli looked sharp with his bat. The former India skipper looked exceptional against Aussie spinners in the first innings but then, a controversial decision from on-field umpire Nitin Menon brought an end to his meticulously built innings. 

However, former cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Gautam Gautam were very impressed with Kohli’s batting and believe that he is just an inch away from putting an end to his century drought in Test cricket. His last one in the longest format of the game came against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in 2019.

Now, despite not being able to score a lot of runs in the last two matches, Kohli on Day 3 of the second Test became the fastest cricketer to score 25000 runs in international cricket. The 34-year-old took 549 innings to achieve the feat, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s 577 innings. The list also features Ricky Ponting (588 innings), Jacques Kallis (594 innings), Kumar Sangakkara (608 innings), and Mahela Jayawardena (701 innings).

Meanwhile, reacting to Kohli’s unique feet, Gambhir lauded the cricketer and stated the fact that he has been successful in every given condition. He appreciated Kohli for being consistent throughout and mentioned that scoring 25000 international runs is no joke.

“I don't know about the list but the best part of Virat Kohli is that he has performed the same in India and in Australia, in South Africa. There will be an Australia (sic) or a South African in the list but you have to compare their numbers in the subcontinent as well. Kohli is a master of the 50-overs format but in Test cricket too he has scored 27 hundreds, and 28 fifties. He has centuries in England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies. What more can you achieve?

Scoring 25 thousand runs is no joke. He has seen a lot of ups and downs but has remained consistent. Your game goes through a lot of changes. Your stance changes, your technique changes, your strengths and weaknesses change, your mode of dismissals become different, your emotions change and if you can factor in all of that, control all these things and score these many runs then you are a great,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

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