GT vs RCB: "What Glenn Maxwell can do, Virat Kohli can't..." - Gautam Gambhir's blunt take on RCB star's T20 strike rate

No spice once again as Gautam Gambhir defended his statesman and his former India teammate Virat Kohli when asked to reflect on the latter's strike rate. 

Gautam Gambhir recently appeared in Sportskeeda's IPL show called "Match ki Baat" and therein, he had some eye-opening stuff to say (as usual). Most of the questions revolved around Virat Kohli, probably to get some spice out, but Gambhir made sure that people did not end up gaining traction from his statements. 

Why is Virat Kohli being criticized for his strike rate?

Before we get to what Gautam Gambhir said about Virat Kohli, we must know why is Kohli being slammed for his strike rate. The former RCB and India captain had played out two innings - one against the Rajasthan Royals and the Sunrisers Hyderabad at a relatively lower strike rate. 

Virat Kohli first got into the heat of things when he scored the joint slowest IPL century off 67 balls against the Royals on 6th April at the Sawai Mansingh stadium. The stalwart was slammed, criticized, mocked, and trolled online for that innings which later went in vain due to Jos Buttler's match-winning full century. 

Then against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Virat Kohli scored a half-century at a strike rate of 118.60 but this time, RCB won by a margin of 35 runs. His 51 off 43 was the one that caught most of the flame and the criticism against his strike rate began to spread like wildfire. 

What did Gautam Gambhir say?

In his response to the hosts' question, Gautam Gambhir claimed that the most important thing is winning. He highlighted that if a team wins then no one talks about strike rates but if a team loses, all these narratives about strike rates come forward. 

"See everything boils down to - whether your team is winning the match or not. If your team is winning matches then no one talks about it but if your team loses matches then people start talking about it. And then you bring out every single thing that led you towards the defeat. Every player has a different style of play," Gambhir told Sportskeeda. 

Gautam Gambhir then stated that every player has their own style of play and that different players have different temperament. In that case, one cannot expect Virat Kohli to do things that Glenn Maxwell does and expect Maxwell to do the things that Kohli does.

He also highlighted that if every player from the order of 1 to 8 are the same, then a team can not only score 300 runs but there will also be chances of getting all out for 30. Lastly, he showed the mirror that a batter batting at a 100 strike rate is good enough if the team wins but if the team remains on the losing side despite a batter batting at a 180+ strike rate, then it becomes a problem.

"Virat cannot do what Maxwell does and similarly Maxwell cannot do what Virat does (on the field). So a good team has all types of players with different ingredients. Imagine if your team has similar types of players from 1 to 8, then you can score 300 runs but you can also get all out for 30. Ultimately, the team's victory is the most important," Gambhir added. 

"If you bat at a strike rate of 100 and your team wins, then it's good enough but if you bat at a 180+ strike rate but your team loses then no one talks about it. That's the reality." Gambhir concluded.