Virat Kohli
'What message did he want? Encouragement?': Sunil Gavaskar slams Virat Kohli over sole Dhoni text comment
India's star batsman Virat Kohli's recalling that it was only his immediate predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni who had texted him after he quit Test captaincy has not gone down well with cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar.
After the India-Pakistan Super Four match, Kohli at a press conference recalled no one except Dhoni reached out to him after he stepped down from the captaincy in red ball cricket.
Kohli said, "I can say one thing that when I announced my resignation from Test captaincy, I got a message from only one person with whom I played earlier, that is MS Dhoni.
"Many people have my number...many people give suggestions on TV...but the people who had my number, nobody messaged. The respect, the connection that you have with somebody, when that is genuine, it shows this way."
In a sharp counter, Gavaskar said on India Today, "I don't know what the dressing room inside-situation was with all these other players. Ideally, if he has named one person who got in touch, then maybe the other persons who didn't get in touch should have also been named.
"That would have been a little bit fair to everybody concerned, rather than thinking that everybody else didn't get in touch with him."
"What message did he want. Encouragement? But then he is done with captaincy, so why would he need encouragement? That chapter (captaincy) is already closed," the former cricketer said on Sports Tak.
Kohli, who has gone through a lean patch for a quite long time, returned to form in the ongoing Asia Cup with two consecutive half centuries, first against Hong Kong and then Pakistan.
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