Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli had high hopes riding on him when he walked out to open the batting alongside skipper Faf du Plessis in Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals of ongoing IPL 2022 at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. In the opening over bowled by Trent Boult, Kohli whipped the ball off his pads for a six over deep-square leg and it looked like the batter was in the zone. However, in the very next over, the 33-year-old was dismissed by Prasidh Krishna after scoring just 7 runs. The dismissal was a worrying sign as it saw the RCB batter chasing a short and wide delivery, to hand a simple catch to wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.
Former India players Virender Sehwag and Parthiv Patel discussed in detail about the dismissal and Kohli’s performance on a whole this season.
Sehwag went on to say that Kohli has probably committed more mistakes in this season of IPL as compared to his entire career.
“When you are out of form, you are just trying to middle every ball to get confidence. In the first over, he did let go of some deliveries, but this is exactly what happens when you are not in form, you go chasing after balls. Sometimes luck favours you, the ball does not catch the edge of your bat. But it did not happen this way. This is not the Virat Kohli we know; this is perhaps some other Virat Kohli this season,” said Sehwag during Cricbuzz’s mid-innings show.
“The number of mistakes he has made this season, he probably has not made as many in his entire career. When you are not scoring runs, you try to do different things and then you are dismissed in different ways. This time, Virat Kohli has been dismissed in all the ways possible. He could have possibly let go of that ball or he could have gone hard at it. He disappointed his fans and RCB fans, it was such a big match,” he added.
Parthiv highlighted how Kohli does not play the cut short, and it was probably just a case of the batter being over anxious as he does not have runs behind him.
“You are overanxious when you do not have many runs. The problem is that Kohli does not play the cut shot,” said Parthiv.
Kohli registered 341 runs in 16 matches this IPL at an average of 22.73. RCB bowed out of the ongoing tournament after suffering a seven-wicket loss to Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2.
Jos Buttler smashed an unbeaten century to take RR over the line by seven wickets and 11 balls to spare. — NDTV
