Ahead of this highly-anticipated and must-win clash between CSK and RCB, Virat was taken by surprise during the latest episode of the RCB Insider Show with Mr.Nags.
The conversation started with a witty wordplay by host Mr. Nags, who mentioned the name Sunil. This nearly caught Virat off guard until Mr. Nags quickly clarified with “Chhetri,” causing both Virat and the host to burst into laughter.
Here’s how the conversation unfolded:
Mr Nags: “See Virat, I want to talk about a friend of yours. Not mine but your friend. He said a lot of nice things about you… Sunil”.
Virat: “Who?”
Mr Nags: “Chhetri” (Both Virat and host burst into laughter)
Virat revealed that Chhetri personally informed him about the retirement decision.
Virat: “He (Chhetri) actually messaged me as well, informing me that he is going to do it. But I would say that it felt like he is at peace with the decision. Over the years, I have become really close with him. I wish him nothing but the best. He is a lovely lovely guy.”
The conversation between Virat and Mr. Nags humorously referenced the Sunil Gavaskar-Virat saga, which had taken social media by storm after the former cricketer criticised Virat’s strike rate.
“If you have a strike rate of 118, you come and face the first ball, and then you get out in the 14th or 15th over and your strike rate is 118 – if you want applause for that, then that’s a little bit different,” Gavaskar had said.
“We’ve all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket, but we speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes or dislikes, we actually speak about what’s happening. So, I would be very disappointed if Star Sports showed this once more because that would be questioning all of us commentators,” Gavaskar had said.
In the next match, Virat whacked 92 off 47 balls against Punjab Kings and was awarded Man of the Match.
During the post-match presentation, Virat cheekily responded to Gavaskar’s comments and said: “It was important to keep up my strike rate through the innings, so I wanted to take on the momentum,” Kohli said with a wry smile during the mid-innings interview with the broadcasters.”