ICC has just released a video of Gautam Gambhir. The video shows the Head Coach of Indian men’s cricket speaking about Virat Kohli. It is, in fact, what Gambhir told about King Kohli before the start of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
“The hunger. He still wants to be the best in the world. And, that is what’s important. Sometimes, we only judge people by their performances, by the runs and what they do on the field. But, it is also important how much they want to improve,” Gambhir says in the video.
“Seeing Virat, now very closely since last 6-7 months, think everyday, whenever he wants to train, he wants to be the best he can be. And, that is something which is very important,” India’s Head Coach says.
“And, that is why I feel Virat can have a massive tournament. Because we know how good a player he is in the 50 over format. And, come the big stage, come the big tournament, more often that not, he puts his hand up,” Gambhir adds.
Ravi Shastri on Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli’s dominance in ODIs comes from his discipline and match awareness, former Head Coach Ravi Shastri earlier said on The ICC Review.
Shastri believes Kohli tried too hard in recent years but has now returned to his strength, rotating strike, playing grounded shots and picking the right moments for big hits.
“Whether his name is Ronaldo or it’s Messi or whether it’s a Djokovic or whether it’s Nadal, that energy that they bring in – there’s a certain kind of charisma and it rubs off on other people. They want to watch this guy play,” Shastri said about Kohli.
Shastri also drew parallels with Sachin Tendulkar in praising Virat Kohli.
“It just goes to show the amount of sacrifice an individual makes. I saw that with Tendulkar, loved his food, loves to do things that the other boys wanted to do, but said no,” Shastri added.
Virat Kohli in ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Virat Kohli has made 217 runs in 4 innings so far in ICC Champions Trophy 2025. He is the highest scorer for India in this tournament, followed by Shreyas Iyer (195 runs) and Shubman Gill (157 runs).
