Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has criticised Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) icon Virat Kohli for his knock in their IPL 2024 match against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday. Kohli, who raced to 32 off his first 18 balls, had to slow his innings down after the quick dismissals for skipper Faf du Plessis and Will Jacks, respectively. After that, he only managed 19 off his next 25 balls, before perishing to Jaydev Unadkat. He ended up with a strike rate of 118.6.
On the contrary, Rajat Patidar smashed 50 runs off just 20 balls, including four sixes in one over off Mayank Markande.
Kohli’s dip in strike-rate, however, left Gavaskar fuming on-air. The legendary batter suggested that Kohli should’ve taken more risk as RCB had a few decent batters to come after him.
“It’s just been singles, singles and singles from Kohli. There is [Dinesh] Karthik to come; there is [Mahipal] Lomror to come. You’ve got to try and take a few risks now. Look at Patidar. He had already hit three sixes in that over. If he had wanted, he could have taken a single or left the ball for a wide. But no, he went for it because the opportunity was there,” Gavaskar said on commentary.
Explaining the reason behind Kohli’s dip in strike-rate, Gavaskar said that the batter went into a shell after one point and couldn’t get out of it despite his best attempts.
“That’s the approach RCB now need. Yes, Kohli has played and missed; it’s not easy, because when you’ve been in your shell, you’ve just been working the ones, and suddenly connecting is not going to be easy. But that is what Kohli needs to do; needs to attempt. He has got to attempt the big shots no,” he added.
“In the middle, he just seemed to have lost touch. I am not sure of the exact numbers, but I think from 31-32 to the time he got out, he did not hit a boundary. So at the end of the day, when he got out when you are facing the strike in the first ball of the innings and you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, you have got strike rate of 118, that’s not what your team expects from you.”
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