Gavaskar blasts Kohli, Star Sports over RCB batter’s IPL strike rate row

Indian batting legend and former captain Sunil Gavaskar has lashed out at Virat Kohli and Star Sports after the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) star batter hadhit out at his critics over his strike rate in the ongoing IPL 2024.

On Saturday (May 4), Gavaskar, speaking on IPL’s host broadcaster Star Sports, was furious and launched a never-seen-before attack on Kohli and the channel.

'Outside noise'

Gavaskar, who does commentary for Star Sports, did not like the channel repeatedly showing Kohli’s comments against his strike rate critics.

Before RCB played their IPL 2024 game against Gujarat Titans (GT) at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Gavaskar, who was at the ground, asked the channel not to belittle its commentators.

“Commentators questioned only when his (Kohli) strike rate was 118. I’m not too sure. I don't watch too many matches, so I don't know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you come and open and then have a strike of 118 when you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, I mean, if you want applause for that, that's a little bit different. That's different,” Gavaskar 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,” he added as co-commentator and former Australian opener Matthew Hayden stood next to him.

Further, Gavaskar questioned as to why Kohli was responding to his critics if players consider it “outside noise”.

“All these guys talk about, ‘oh we don't care about outside noise’. Accha! Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don't necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening,” Gavaskar said.

What Kohli said

On Sunday (April 28), after RCB defeated GT by nine wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Kohli slammed his critics.

“I think all the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones who love talking about this stuff. But, for me, it’s about winning the game for the team. And there is a reason you have done this for 15 years,” he said on Star Sports.

He continued, “You have done this, day in and day out. You have won games for your team. And I am not quite sure if you have not been in that situation yourself, to sit and speak about the game from a box.

“I don’t think it’s the same thing. For me, it’s about doing the job for the team. People can sit and talk about their own ideas and assumptions of the game. But those who have done it, day in and day out, they know what they are doing. It's kind of muscle memory for me now.”

At the moment, Kohli is the Orange Cap holder in IPL 2024 with 542 runs from 11 matches with one hundred and four fifties. His strike rate is 148.08 and averages 67.75.