Virat Kohli is fast losing the support he enjoys among the former players. He is on the hit list of legendary cricketers for his strike rate in the Indian Premier League 2023. The stand-in captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore is fast becoming the most hated cricketer in the 16th season because of his slow batting.
In the last game against Punjab Kings, Virat and Faf du Plessis added 137 runs for the opening wicket and completed their fifties. However, despite an aggressive start, the 34-year-old slowed down and managed 59 off 47 balls in the end.
Matthew Hayden, Rohan Gavaskar, Simon Doull, Michael Vaughan and Tom Moody have spoken about his scoring rate against the spinners. Earlier, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh raised the alarm about his batting.
RCB managed 174/4 in 20 overs. For a team that hadn’t lost a wicket till the 16th over, a run rate of just above 8 was unacceptable.
Kohli’s case is different from David Warner’s and KL Rahul’s. They have been slammed for their batting. KL and David have been slow from the start. On the other hand, Kohli started aggressively but lost steam after the powerplay overs.
Since 2020, when RCB have lost 1 or more wickets in the powerplay, Virat’s strike rate between the 7th to the 9th over is just 95
“That’s not right by Kohli. He needs to look at his strike rate,” Moody said on ESPNCricinfo.
Former Indian cricketer Amol Mazumdar tried to back Kohli but was shown a mirror by Tom. “I know Amol said that it’s okay if Virat batted till the 20th over, but it is not okay because they are not accelerating as a team, the total they need to achieve. The two added 137 runs for the opening stand. You have a batter striking at 125 after batting for a long time. He is dominating the powerplay overs, but what about the middle overs.”
