Former India opener Gautam Gambhir advised Virat Kohli to not concentrate on his individual record in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia. The southpaw suggested that in a tournament like World Cup it’s crucial for any player to play effective runs which help the team to win the matches. Kohli has returned to form recently with a scintillating show in Asia Cup 2022 but India failed to reach the final there. The 33-year-old scored valuable runs for India in the T20I series against Australia and South Africa.
Recently, Kohli became the first Indian batter to breach the 11,000 runs mark in T20 cricket. The 33-year-old has slammed 11030 runs in 354 T20 matches so far in his career.
Ahead of the warm-up match between India and Australia, Gambhir was asked how players like Kohli should approach the mega ICC event.
The former India opener suggested that there is no point in breaking records if your team doesn’t win the match.
“The mindset of scoring runs, and effective ones, with the help of which your team wins. No point in scoring runs that just go in your records or fifties or hundreds. Even if you make 40 or even 20, make it at such a rate that it helps your team post 170-180. And if you’re chasing, make sure that it takes the pressure off your middle order,” Gambhir told the broadcasters.
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Gambhir suggested that players should focus on scoring impactful runs as individual records don’t matter in events like World Cup.
“When you go in such tournaments, you have to keep your personal records at home. Individual records don’t matter in such tournaments. Even if you score 200 runs in the tournament and your team wins, that will be your legacy. But if you score 500 runs and the team gets knocked out, then those runs are of no use,” he added.
Meanwhile, the former India captain failed to score big in the first warm-up match of the T20 WC. Kohli was delightful in his 13-ball 19 before top-edging a pull to fine leg off Star, however, India won the match by 6 runs in Brisbane.
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