Kohli can’t rise to high of 200th match
MUMBAI: For any batter going through a lean patch—in batting or otherwise in his career— nothing can quite lift the mood like a few runs. If anyone needs that lift in the IPL, it’s Virat Kohli.
For the highest run-getter in the history of the Twenty20 league, Monday’s game against Kolkata Knight Riders was a creditable landmark—the 200th of his career. His legions of fans would have been hoping for him to mark the occasion with a classy knock and answer the hovering critics.
To add to the storyline, Kohli also made some big calls in the lead-up to the tournament, announcing that he will relinquish the Royal Challengers Bangalore leadership after this season.
It is obvious that at the moment Kohli and the Indian cricket board are not on the same page. He first stumped the BCCI administrators by announcing his decision to step down from India’s T20 captaincy much ahead of the T20 World Cup in October-November. Then, even as the chairman of the Indian selection committee made it clear that he will be batting in the middle-order for India, Kohli decided to open and face the first ball of the innings for RCB to resume the second half of the IPL in UAE.
The decision to give up captaincy, Kohli said, was to free his mind and help him return to peak form with the bat. Watching him play in full flight is a thing of beauty. The strokes flow from the blade with a painterly touch and for a brief while, Kohli looked like he was in the flow.
For his first ball, he tucked KKR’s spinner Varun Chakaravarthy to the leg side for a single. On the third ball of the second over, he creamed a trademark cover-drive off pacer Prasidh Krishna to raise hopes of the star driving away the blues. However, the pacer hit back right away with a fullish ball on middle that darted into Kohli, who tried to flick it, missed, and was out lbw. To make matters worse, Kohli straightaway called for DRS and ended up costing his team the only review available.
He was out early but continued to be the talking point of the game. When the broadcaster played out the video of Kohli’s statement on leaving captaincy, his former RCB teammates Parthiv Patel and Dale Steyn— doing commentary now— offered their views on their former captain.
“He looked more emotional than relieved,” said Patel, talking about the deep connect that Kohli has established with RCB, having played throughout for the Bangalore franchise from 2008.
Steyn said Kohli loves to get involved in everything during a match and being just a regular player will be a difficult role for him to get used to.
“He is involved in everything during the match. Dealing with the bubble life (during the pandemic), he has a family life, that’s a lot of responsibility…may be it is the right time to focus purely on his batting.”