RCB opening batter Virat Kohli was once against amongst the runs once again on Sunday, hitting 51 runs off 43 deliveries with 4 boundaries and a six. However, despite the veteran batter’s half century, former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar wasn’t particularly impressed with his performance and criticized the batter for his slow strike rate against the SRH while stating that’s not the kind of performance his team expects from the veteran batter.
Notably, Virat Kohli started the innings in an aggressive fashion along with Faf Du Plessis but the veteran batter seemed to have focused more on taking singles than the big shots after the wicket of his opening partner and the subsequent end of 6 over powerplay. Moreover, the veteran batter did not hit a single boundary post the 4th over mark and instead scored the next 28 runs of his innings at less than run a ball even as Rajat Patidar hit the SRH continued to hit the SRH bowlers for boundaries and sixes.
Pointing out the flaws in Kohli’s innings, Sunil Gavaskar said,
Speaking about Kohli’s inability to hit the big shots during commentary, Gavaskar said, “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 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,”
“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,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Speaking after the innings to Star Sports, the former Indian cricketer said, “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,”
