Virat Kohli should have shared the MoM momento with Kuldeep Yadav: Chetan Sharma

Former Indian pace bowler, Chetan Sharma, who clinched the first hat-trick for India in ODIs, claimed that Indian captain Virat Kohli should have shared the man of the match award with Kuldeep Yadav. The KKR Chinaman bowler lit up his adopted home ground in Eden Gardens by becoming the third Indian to take a hat-trick after Sharma and Kapil Dev.

The Haryana bowler also compared the feat of Kohli in the match with that of Kuldeep Yadav. Sharma claimed that Kohli scoring runs for India is a matter of routine these days but the feat achieved by young Kuldeep is very rare.

The 51-year old recalled the match where he picked a hat-trick against New Zealand in 1987 and shared the man of the match award with Sunil Gavaskar who also scored a ton in the match. Back in 2009, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir also shared his MoM award with young Kohli who scored his maiden ODI ton.

Kohli is scoring runs often but a hat-trick comes once in a while: Chetan Sharma

“I got the man-of-the-match award along with Sunil Gavaskar, who scored his only ODI hundred in the same match (India v New Zealand in the 1987 World Cup at Nagpur). I was happy to share the man-of-the-match award with the legend. Here too, there should have been a joint man-of-the-match award – Kuldeep and Kohli,” claimed Chetan Sharma according to Mid-Day.

“Kohli is scoring runs often but a hat-trick comes once in a while. The last hat-trick by an Indian in ODI cricket was Kapil Dev’s which he bagged in 1991 — 26 years ago,” justified the former Haryana bowler. “Kuldeep is a match-winner. After bowling his first spell he came back to bag a hat-trick. He did a creditable job as bowlers were finding it difficult to grip the ball. Yet, he forced the batsmen to commit errors,” stated Sharma commending the efforts of Kuldeep Yadav.