Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli moderated down as he neared the 50-run stamp. Amid their overcome to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) “for no clear reason,” formal India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said on Friday.
Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal gave RCB a solid start after being put in to bat. But after coming to 40 off 26 deliveries, Kohli included his next 13 runs in 15 balls.
Manjrekar lauded Kohli’s aim within the powerplay but raised questions almost. Why he slowed down after getting to the 40-run check.
“I thought there was a different Virat Kohli batting today. He was stepping out to the fast bowlers. He was really batting like a T20 opener. Throwing caution to the wind and going down the pitch and stuff that he doesn’t do that much. And come to 40, he drastically slowed down. I couldn’t understand that,” said Manjrekar
However, Kohli scored his first 40 runs at a strike rate of 153.84, but it dropped to 86.66 after that. Manjrekar feels the weight around his choice to step down as India’s T20 Universal (T20I) captain after the T20 World Cup and as RCB captain after IPL 2021 influenced him.
T20 World Cup
“Clearly, when he got close to 50, he slowed down. And I just wonder, the time that he is going through with all the decisions he has taken around T20 cricket and with the runs not coming in, whether he got a bit caught up in that thing about getting to 50, because it’s a huge nosedive from 153 to 86 when there is no apparent reason,” he said
RCB were 111/1 when Kohli departed after 13.2 overs, and after a mini-collapse, they managed to post 156/6.
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