Legendary West Indies batter Chris Gayle has backed his former Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate and India batting star Virat Kohli to dominate the batting charts at the ODI World Cup in 2023. Gayle said he found no season to not believe that Kohli would overcome his recent slump and hit peak form at the 50-over premier tournament, starting October 5.
Virat Kohli was in sensational form in IPL 2023 for RCB, scoring 639 runs, including 2 hundreds, in 14 matches. He was struggling for form in ODIs last year but the hundred, his first after a 2-year gap, against Bangladesh at Chattogram in December 2022 opened the floodgate. The former captain has scored 427 runs at an average of 53.37, hitting 2 hundreds in just 9 matches. Kohli began the year with 113 against Sri Lanka and hit 166 not out against the islanders in Thiruvananthapuram. Kohli hit a fifty against Australia in India’s last ODI ahead of IPL 2023.
However, the star batter was not able to step up and deliver for India in the World Test Championship final as he managed just 14 and 49.
However, Kohli has found the backing of the selectors who picked up for a 2-Test series in West Indies in July which will be followed by 3 ODIs.
“Tough times don’t last long tough players last longer. Virat is tough mentally as well physically. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t go to this World Cup and dominate,” Gayle told PTI news agency.
“As players, we always go through phases where things seem a bit dull and you need positive energy around to uplift yourself. Once we get back in the groove, we know how dangerous we can be,” he added.
