- Saturday, April 27, 2024
The performance of the RCB batter in this year’s edition will be key in determining his future in T20 internationals.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN Premier League (IPL) 2024 is set to kick off on Friday (22) and while all focus was on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as their captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepped down from captaincy for the last time on the eve of the opening clash, their opponents Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were not far away from discussion, thanks to one man: Virat Kohli.
Unlike Dhoni who has led Chennai to record-equalling five IPL crowns, Kohli has remained an unrewarded soldier of Bangalore, failing to win even one trophy in his entire career. The closest he came was in 2016 when he was the captain of the team and was in a superhuman form with the bat but RCB fell in the final hurdle, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, narrowly.
The eyes are on Kohli again. It is not only because he will be back into competitive cricket after January since he missed the five-match Test series against England that ended earlier this month but also because speculation is rife over his future in the shortest format.
Read: MS Dhoni no more CSK captain; Ruturaj Gaikwad takes over
Reports came out recently that the 35-year-old might not be an automatic choice in the India squad for the T20 World Cup to be held in the West Indies and the US in June. His performance in the IPL will be under the scanner since a less-than-expected show could mark the end of his road in international T20s.
Read: India national cricketer seeks help as tickets for IPL 2024 opener see ‘unreal demand’
It is not that Kohli has not delivered his best in the same format. He hit his only hundred in international T20s in the 2022 Asia Cup in the UAE. He also played an unforgettable match-winning knock against arch-rivals Pakistan during the T20 World Cup in Australia the same year.
But even greats have to undergo tests time and again.
Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody feels the Indian batter needs to “take the game on” and channel an aggressive show in this year’s IPL not only because of the uncertainty over his T20 future in international cricket but also due to the fact that Bangalore have made certain changes in their batting department this year.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Moody, who is now a coach, said he would like to see Kohli take the game on and then boss it.
“Because he has got the game. He’s got more than a game. He’s one of the greats,” he was quoted as saying.
“When he does that, he looks unstoppable. I just keep getting flashbacks of the season in 2016 when he had a bumper year. He scored well over 900 runs; you just couldn’t bowl to him. No one was looking at the strike rate then because he was controlling the game.
“Now that the Impact Sub has been implied, and with the reinforcements RCB have got in their batting, I want to see Virat go out there bossing the game. He can do it, you are not asking someone to do something they are not capable of. He can do that and can tear this tournament apart,” Moody told the cricket outlet.
Kohli is the highest run-getter in the IPL with a tally of 7,263 in 237 matches and a strike rate of 130. His most productive season came in 2016 when he slammed 973 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 152 plus with four hundreds.
