New Delhi. Star batsman Virat Kohli and head coach Gautam Gambhir, who are famous for their aggression on the field, are both from Delhi and one of the many similarities between them is that both have unshakable faith in God. In a conversation with each other for BCCI TV, Kohli and Gambhir talked about many similarities. Gambhir told how he read ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ and played a memorable innings that lasted for two days when he was trying to save a Test against New Zealand in Napier fifteen years ago. Similarly, in 2014, Kohli scored four Test centuries in Australia and while batting, he was chanting ‘Om Namah Shivaya’.
On the BCCI TV podcast, Kohli asked Gambhir, “Let’s talk about the India Australia series. The most special would be the double century scored on our soil. I want to know what was going on in your mind at that time. How did you play so calmly and with so much patience?” Gambhir said to this, “Instead of talking about me, I remember when you played a bumper series in Australia. Where you scored a lot of runs and you told me that you were saying Om Namah Shivaya before every ball. This helped you.”
Gambhir saved India from innings defeat by scoring 136 runs in an innings that lasted 10 hours and 43 minutes. Gambhir said, “During the innings that lasted two and a half days in Napier, the only thing I did was to keep reading Hanuman Chalisa. When you chanted Om Namah Shivaya, I read Hanuman Chalisa. It helped a lot. Such opportunities come rarely in one’s career and it is a supernatural feeling.”