​​​​“He’s as hungry as when he made his debut” – Gautam Gambhir on Virat Kohli ahead of IND vs NZ 1st Test 2024

Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir has revealed that talismanic batter Virat Kohli is as hungry as when he made his debut. Kohli has taken giant strides in his career and he has been a consistent performer in all three formats of the game.

Meanwhile, Kohli registered scores of 6 and 17 in the opening Test match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai against Bangladesh. Kohli then returned with scores of 47 and 29* in the second Test at Kanpur. The veteran batter will hold the key in the upcoming three-match Test series against New Zealand.

Kohli needs 53 runs to become the fourth Indian batter to complete 9000 runs in Test cricket.

Gautam Gambhir said in a press conference, “Virat has always been very clear that he is a world-class cricketer. He has performed for such a long period of time and he is as hungry as when he made his debut. I remember opening the batting with him when he made his debut in Sri Lanka. To now, his hunger is always there and is already there.

“And that is what makes him a world class cricketer and I am sure that he will be hungry to get runs in this series and probably moving forward to Australia as well. And we know that once he gets into those runs scoring how consistent can he be.

On the other hand, Gambhir reckons the series against New Zealand will be challenging as the opposition has got world-class players.

“New Zealand is a completely different challenge. We know that they’re a very, very professional unit, they’ve got some really high quality players, they’ve got players who can hurt us, they’ve got players who can do the job for them as well, so we respect them, but we don’t fear anyone.

“I’ve said it many times, that we will always respect every opposition, we want to be selfless, we want to be humble, we want to try and play the game as hard as possible on the cricket field.”

Gambhir added they want to be that team that plays according to the match situation and get the desired result as a unit.

“We want to be that team that can score 400 in one day and bat for two days to draw. And you call that growth, you call that adaptability, you call that test cricket. If you play the same way, then it’s not growth.

“We have players who can score 400 or 450 runs in one day, and there are also players who can bat for two days, to draw the test match. And we want to play the same type of cricket. No other type of cricket.”

The opening Test match between India and New Zealand will be played in Bengaluru from October 16 onwards.