'The problem is we just think about his 100s' - Yuzvendra Chahal backs Virat Kohli amidst his century drought

Friday, the 19th of August, marked 1000 days since Virat Kohli last scored a century in any format of the game. He’s been inconsistent for the majority of the part in this period and is under the scanner for quite some time now. Netizens on social media also criticised the former captain on quite a few occasions, but there are people who backed Kohli to do well and get better.

Captain Rohit Sharma is one of them. He backed the 33-year-old on many occasions in the past. Yuzvendra Chahal is the latest person to defend Kohli and also reminded everyone about his valuable contributions amidst his century drought.

Speaking to Sports Yaari, the leg-spinner said that Kohli is getting the necessary runs but it’s the century that people always talk about. Often regarded as the chase master, Kohli has 70 International centuries to his name and has a 50+ average in T20 cricket. Chahal thus believes that he has set his standard so high, that not making a century makes the headlines these days.

“If there is someone who has a 50+ average in T20Is, he has been the Man Of The Tournament in two T20 World Cups, he has 70 hundreds across all formats. You just see his average across all formats, the problem is we just think about his 100s, we don’t talk about those valuable contributions of 60-70 because of the standards he has set,” said the 32-year-old. “If he is there at the crease and has 15-20 runs behind him, I am telling you no bowler wants to bowl to him,” the off-spinner added.

My role has always been the same under different captains – Chahal

The leg-spinner has been one of India’s biggest match winners in the recent past. He along with Kuldeep Yadav has been India’s one of the most successful duos in white-ball cricket. Thus, him not being a part of the 2021 T20 World Cup raised a lot of eyebrows. A lot of fans still blame the management for not picking Chahal for the tournament.

After the T20 World Cup, the leg-spinner made his grand return to the Indian team under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. With that, he has now played International cricket under all three modern greats of Indian cricket. However, be it MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, Chahal said that his role has never changed in the Indian team.

“My role has always been the same under different captains, they always use me as a wicket-taking bowler. For me, they are all same. I have gotten the liberty as a bowler. They always prefer what I want to do. Sometimes Rohit bhaiya asks me this situation, what will you do? As a bowler, you know, you cannot be relaxed in any over,” said Chahal in the interview.