IND vs SL: 'You Cannot Compare Virat Kohli With Sachin Tendulkar' - Gautam Gambhir Feels It's Unfair To The "Master Blaster"

Virat Kohli, the top batsman for India, achieved his 45th ODI century during the series opener in Guwahati versus Sri Lanka, prompting parallels to Sachin Tendulkar. Given that Kohli is the most ambitious ODI player to reach the century mark, this has been the case with him for years.

Prior to going nearly three years without scoring a century, Kohli seemed certain to tie or maybe top Tendulkar’s record of 100 international hundreds.

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Perhaps Kohli may find it a bit more difficult to match or even top Tendulkar’s that record but as for the most ODI centuries in history, he can still do so in 2023. To surpass his countryman, Tendulkar, who retired with 49 ODI tonnes, Kohli needs five more of these performances.

It Was Tougher To Score In Sachin Tendulkar’s Era Than Virat Kohli’s: Gautam Gambhir

In terms of statistics, Kohli keeps making parallels to Tendulkar, but Gautam Gambhir feels it’s unfair because scoring runs was more harder back then.

“…you can’t compare Virat with Sachin. In Sachin’s era there weren’t 5 players inside the 30-yard circle,” Gambhir said on Star Sports during a mid-innings show.

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The Powerplay regulations, which limit the number of fielders that may be placed outside the 30-yard circle at certain points in an inning, were mentioned by Gambhir.

Gautam Gambhir Slams Ordinary Bowling By Sri Lanka

In the first ODI, India’s top three completely destroyed Sri Lanka’s attack with to a century partnership between skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. Before Kohli blazed the Barsapara Cricket Stadium with a magnificent 114, Rohit produced a quickfire 83 off 67 and Gill hit 70 off 60. Sri Lanka was held to a meagre 306/8 before India reached a massive 373/7.

Gambhir also called Sri Lankan bowling “average” in a tirade against it.

“It was pretty ordinary bowling,” Gambhir said. “The top three of the Indian batting line-up have got lots and lots of runs behind them. Rohit and Kohli obviously, Shubman also has the ability to get so many runs in international cricket. And how easy it was for Rohit and Shubman to get runs today. That was a surprise for me. You have to be consistent and Sri Lanka’s bowling outing was very very disappointing for me,” he said.

Also Read: IND vs SL: “It Feels Good When The Team Captain Backs You” – Shubman Gill

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