India vs England 2021: Rare To See Virat Kohli Go Without A Century For This Long, Says Sunil Gavaskar

It is rare from a batsman of Virat Kohli’s stature, but 2020 was the first year in his 12-year career, that the Indian captain failed to register a 3-digit score in any format of international cricket. Though the entire year was marred by the Coronavirus pandemic, still it goes down in the record books, that the Indian captain failed to make a century in international cricket.

However, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels that it is just a matter of time for the Delhi lad to score a big one as he is long overdue for a brilliant ton. Virat Kohli’s last century came in 2019 when he stroked 136 runs against Bangladesh in the country’s first-ever day-night Test match in Kolkata.

Gavaskar also felt that a big score from Kohli was just around the corner and said that, “I just think that he is due for a big score. Last year was the first when he didn’t have a hundred, in any form of the game, which is so rare,”

“For the last seven-eight years, every single year, he’s got at least five-six hundreds in all forms of the game. Last year, I knew we had the pandemic, but still very rare to see that Virat Kohli did not have a three-figure score. And 2021, he’d be hoping to change that.” Gavaskar added.

India’s 2021 campaign started in an unwanted fashion as England smashed 578 runs in the first innings of the first Test in Chennai. Joe Root smashed 218 in his 100^th Test match, while Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes hit brilliant half-centuries.

Virat Kohli thrives under pressure: Sunil Gavaskar

However, Kohli, who looked a bit jittery, fell for 11 runs as a Dom Bess delivery found the inside edge of his bat and he was caught by Ollie Pope at short-leg. Gavaskar believed that Kohli is a batsman whose best comes out in pressure and will be back scoring big runs very soon.

“Pressure is what brings the best out of Virat Kohli. And we’ve seen that time and again over the years then when he’s got his back to the wall is when he plays his best cricket. Sometimes when you’re batting at No. 4 and you’re 200/2 when you go in to bat, you tend to think that batting is easy. He knows now that batting is not easy and he’s got to put everything out there and focus,” Gavaskar said on the Star Sports Network.

Meanwhile, India ended its first innings at 337 with Rishabh Pant hitting 91, Washington Sundar making 85 and Cheteshwar Pujara contributing 73. For England, Dom Bess picked 4/76, while James Anderson, Jack Leach, and Jofra Archer picked two wickets apiece.

Also Read: India vs England 2021: Virat Kohli Is A Better Player When He Bats Aggressively – Michael Vaughan