I like Virat’s passion and work ethic, batting with him was just fantastic: Gayle

PTI, Mar 26, 2023, 1:57 PM IST

Swashbuckling West Indian batter Chris Gayle praised Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli for his work ethic and passion, and recalled the intense competition between the two during their heyday at Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Both Gayle and Kohli spent several seasons together at the IPL, dominating the rival bowlers and entertaining the crowd at their home base, Chinnaswamy Stadium, with as many as 10 century partnerships. ”Batting with Virat was just fantastic. I like the passion he has for the game. I like his passion and his work ethic, it’s fantastic. You have to give him credit for that and he wants to show it with his performances,” Gayle said. In an episode of ‘My Time with Virat’, available on Jio Cinema, Gayle spoke about sharing the dressing room with Kohli, notching up numerous 100-run partnerships, and all the dance moves they perfected together. ”Sharing a dressing room with Virat and the other guys, once I am there, I am always jovial and having a lot of fun, dancing and everything like that,” said Gayle. ”I’d show them a few moves and realise Virat’s got the skills. He can move, you know. But if it’s an Indian dance, Chris Gayle will win. if it’s a Caribbean dance, Chris Gayle will win!” Their relationship was strong but the pair could also be competitive with each other. Gayle narrated a story about Kohli’s reaction to the former earning the Orange Cap from him during a season.

”One thing I remember, just to go back a bit, I remember Virat was the Orange Cap holder one particular season. I was getting runs but he was more of the guy at the time scoring a lot of runs. ”Then, bam bam, two or three games, whatever the case may be, I became the Orange Cap holder. He was like, ‘man this guy just came in, bang bang bang, and became the Orange Cap holder?’ It was just a funny thing that I’ll always remember,” Gayle said. For years, Kohli and Gayle toyed with the opposition bowling attacks, sending the Chinnaswamy Stadium into a frenzy.

However, Gayle added that it was not only fours and sixes that did the trick for them. He insisted they paid a lot of attention to running between wickets and that yielded rich dividends. ”We had a good understanding with each other. We complemented each other well. Sometimes people might say ‘Chris didn’t run between the wickets’. ”I bat with Virat, and I ran between the wickets, so I don’t want anyone to use this as an alibi to say we don’t run between the wickets. ”We have over nine (ten) 100-run partnerships, check how many times how many twos and threes we took. I was the quickest one between the wickets. Don’t get it twisted,” he said. RCB is honouring its former players Gayle and AB de Villiers for their contributions to the franchise.