BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Friday said striving batting maestro Virat Kohli needs to score runs for India as well as “for himself” too. In the Asia Cup beginning in the UAE on Saturday, Kohli will resume the mission to score his first international hundred since 2019, having failed in all his previous attempts.

“He needs to score runs not only for India but for himself. Hopefully it will be a good season for him. We all are confident that he’ll come back,”

Ganguly said during an interaction

Kohli’s last international century came during the pink ball Test against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in 2019.

“I’m sure like all of us are waiting for him to get that hundred, he’s working for it as well. The chances of getting a hundred in a T20 is less because of the time. But, hopefully, this will be a big season for Kohli.”

Ganguly said

The 33-year-old former India captain, who was most last seen in action in England in June-July, is back following a one-month break that saw him skirt two white-ball series in the West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Kohli’s highest score in his last five matches has been 20 in India’s defeat to England in the rescheduled fifth Test at Birmingham.

Having surrendered captaincy at Royal Challengers Bangalore too, Kohli had a slow IPL 2022, scoring 341 runs from 16 matches at an average of 22.73.

Ganguly, during his interaction with the media on the sidelines of Senco Gold and Diamonds’ DG Gold promotional event, wouldn’t concur that a big player like Kohli can endure a lean patch as long as this.

“He’s a very big player, there for a long time. I know he has his own formula to score runs. It’s not possible that players of his stature can’t have such a long lean patch, I know he will definitely score runs. If he was not a great player, he would not have scored so many runs for so long,”

Ganguly maintained

Reigning champions India will start their campaign with the marquee conflict against arch-rivals Pakistan in Dubai, about a year after they lost to them at the same venue in the T20 World Cup.

Ganguly said the T20 World Cup misfortune would have minimal bearing on the result of the approaching games.

“Since 1992 I’ve been following Indo-Pak matches closely. In these 30 years we have lost only once. It’s not magic that you will always win. You lose once or twice, it’s not a big deal,”

Ganguly said

Asked about the pressure that comes with playing Pakistan

“The ones who play regular cricket like in my playing days, it’s just another game where you have had to perform. I never played thinking ‘Pakistan, Pakistan’ only. Maybe during a World Cup semifinal, qualifier match, that sort of emotions were there. If you take all that into consideration, I know the likes of Rohit (Sharma), KL Rahul, Virat, (Rishabh) Pant know how to handle the pressure.” 

he said

“I don’t think one player makes a difference in any team. We also don’t have (Jasprit) Bumrah.”

Ganguly said, when asked whether Pakistan would miss their star pacer Shaheen Afridi

Ganguly further said Hardik Pandya’s return has been a big boost for India post the IPL.

“Absolutely… He’s a huge addition to the side plus his bowling. Last year he was not fit to bowl, now he’s gone back to bowling. So he is a huge addition,”

he said

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“No team is a favourite in the T20 format. Did anyone think of Gujarat winning the IPL. It’s a different format altogether. You have so little time to recover,”

he said when asked about the favourites to lift the Asia Cup

Ganguly’s tenure as the BCCI president is set to get over in September, and a Supreme Court seat headed by Justice DY Chandrachud will settle on the Board’s plea for an amendment to the “cooling off” period following six years in office. He had served in the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) prior to becoming the BCCI chief.

“It’s not in my hands. I don’t know, whatever will be asked will be asked. We will see,”

the 50-year-old said when asked if he wishes to continue after his term is over