'Youngsters must learn from Virat Kohli about fitness, says Gautam Gambhir

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has urged people to stop using terms like passion, energy, and dedication only for a couple of players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the Indian team. According to the veteran, all the players play with the same passion and dedication for the national team as well.

Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma earned plenty of applause for their performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup at home in October-November. They were the top two highest run-scorers in the competition with 765 and 597 runs, respectively. He also gave the example of how middle-order Shreyas Iyer has tackled his short ball problem as well.

After having a poor start to the World Cup 2023, Shreyas Iyer bounced back and ended up contributing 530 runs in 11 innings which came at an average of 66.25 and a strike rate of 113.25.

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In an interaction with Sportskeeda, Gambhir said, “People talk a lot about passion, energy and dedication. All players in the dressing room have the same passion and dedication. No one has less passion or dedication. Wrong to say that only about Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma. All players who play for India will have dedication.”

“Yes, Kohli has worked a lot on his fitness and I would also urge the upcoming players to work on their fitness. It is something which is in your hands. Youngsters must learn from Kohli about fitness,” Gambhir shared. “Everyone works on their game. Shreyas Iyer has also worked hard on the short ball. No one talks about it. He has worked hard and every player does it.”

“Honestly, I didn’t do anything which I shouldn’t have done. People don’t need to talk about it too much. The reason why I gave it was that when I came into the team as a youngster, I would have expected the same from my seniors. The first hundred is always very special. We were chasing 300-plus and were 20/2 at Eden Gardens after Sachin and Sehwag got out. Virat had played a wonderful knock in that match. I wanted to make a young cricketer’s first hundred memorable,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.