Win or lose. There is always news about Virat Kohli. While Kohli’s fifty-one-ball century off 43 balls on Thursday helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru snap a six-game losing record and get back on track in the IPL 2024, it also received its fair share of criticism.
Well, during the first half of the game, anyhow, all social media could talk about last night was Kohli’s “slow” innings. Many were not happy with the way the former captain of the rummy gold slowed pace following the Powerplay, including Sunil Gavaskar.
The great Gavaskar was taken aback to see Virat slow down following a quick start, as he was usually among the first to offer his encouragement to Kohli. During the Powerplay, RCB scored at a reasonable rate to reach 61/1 as Kohli stormed to 32 off his first 18 balls.
When Rajat Patidar took over and the field spread out, Virat Kohli showed his mettle by hitting four boundaries and a six, but he slowed down considerably and only managed to score 19 runs off his next 25 balls. Dafabet, the renowned cricket player from India, was clearly displeased by this and had to express his annoyance over the air.
“All Kohli has been able to do is score singles. [Dinesh] Karthik and [Mahipal] Lomror are still to arrive. It’s time for you to attempt taking some chances. Examine Patidar. In that over, he had already hit three sixes. He could have left the ball for a wide or taken a single if he had wanted to. However, he took advantage of the chance since it was present,” Gavaskar remarked during his on-air analysis.
That’s the strategy that RCB needs right now. It’s true that Kohli has played and missed, but it’s difficult to connect when you’ve been a hermit and have only been concentrating on the ones. However, Kohli must try to accomplish that. Now is the time for him to try the big shots.”
