Veteran Indian spinner Piyush Chawla recalled the camaraderie he shared with Indian batting icon Virat Kohli. Chawla spoke about the bond while revealing that their friendship hasn’t changed even a bit. The former cricketer went on to say that he has played with Kohli for more than 10 years and that the bond they have is the same as it was. Notably, a few former cricketers commented on how Virat Kohli has changed as a person after reaching the pinnacle of success.
Last month, Amit Mishra sparked a massive debate after he commented that Kohli has changed as a person. Not only this, but former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh also made a similar kind of comment on Kohli saying that he has become a celebrity now. However, Chawla recently put all the debates to rest after he insisted that Kohli is still the same and their friendship is still intact that they had from their teen years.
The former also recalled an incident during the Asia Cup 2023 where Kohli was fielding near the boundary line and Piyush was there for the commentary. During that time, Kohli jokingly asked Chawla to order something good for food, as they both are big time foodies. Chawla was present on the 2 sloggers podcast where he said, “Whenever I have played with Virat, my experience has been very well. Everyone has their own way of thinking but we met really well.” Recalling the incident, Chawla said, “ When he was playing the Asia Cup, I was there for the commentary. During the mid-innings interval, Kohli said, ‘PC yaar chal kuch achha order karte hain.’ It was the same kind of discussion we used to have 10-15 years ago.”
Piyush Chawla denies all credits to Gautam Gambhir for IPL 2014 success
On the same podcast, Chawla denied giving all the credit to Gautam Gambhir for KKR’s win in IPL 2014. He said, “If you talk about that season (2014), we used to play with three spinners – me (Piyush Chawla), Sunil Narine, and Shakib Al Hasan. Out of us, Sunil did not bat, Shakib was a proper batter and I used to bat a bit. Yusuf (Pathan) used to bowl when needed.”
“Robin (Uthappa) had an outstanding season with the bat and Manish Pandey also batted well. If you look at Gauti bhai (Gautam Gambhir), he did not start well that season but he scored fifties consistently afterwards. In T20 cricket, you don’t need hundreds or nineties, you just need impactful fifties, which Gambhir did proficiently. So, the contribution was from everyone.”