The star batter didn’t hold back even against spin and that is the player India needs him to be at the T20 World Cup too.
“Your love makes me strong; your hate makes me unstoppable,” Cristiano Ronaldo once said of his critics. It was almost as if Virat Kohli had internalised his favourite footballer’s famous line during his 44-ball unbeaten 70 against Gujarat Titans on Sunday.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match (AFP)
In an earlier game on Thursday, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s slow bowlers had applied the brakes to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru opener’s innings after the Powerplay. From 32 runs in 18 balls, he had laboured to his next 19 runs in 25 balls – a familiar mid-innings slowdown. As every moment of a T20 game is critiqued, so was that phase of play. Kohli didn’t like it. Not one bit.
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A few days later, Kohli is batting on 14 (15b). GT introduces Sai Kishore – the kind of bowler who keeps it flat and tight — inside the Powerplay. Also, the kind of bowler (left-arm orthodox) that Kohli has been striking at just 108 against in IPL 2024. Across 804 balls that he has faced in his IPL career against left-arm finger spin, Kohli’s SR is 115 – the least facing any type of spin. It is an obvious weakness. Kohli knows it, the bowler knows it, the world knows it and to add to that, Kishore has his tail up, having claimed Faf du Plessis’ wicket in his first over. So this is an important match-up.
However, Kishore misses his length by a fraction. Kohli was waiting and has already given himself room before the ball is delivered. He rocks onto the back foot and launches him over long-off. It’s nowhere as spectacular as his strike against Harris Rauf’s in the last T20 World Cup; but boy, does he love it. Next ball, he stays still; there is no premeditation. Kohli knows Kishore must correct his length and bowl fuller. He makes full use of his wrists to hit it for six over mid-wicket look aesthetic. Kohli’s punching the air. Throwing out some expletives. Constantly in conversation with himself, Kohli is in the contest.
In the previous over, he had lofted Rashid Khan straight down the ground. The over after Kishore’s, Kohli swept left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmed for a boundary. It’s not a shot, he uses often. Here, he swept behind square, in front of square. After completing his 50, he even went aerial with his slog sweep against Noor in the Tendulkar mould. When Rashid bowled from behind the crease, Kohli knew it would be short and slapped him past point.
Kohli spared no spinner — 34 of the 44 balls he faced were bowled by the spin trio of Rashid-Noor-Kishore. 61 of his 70 runs came against them at a SR of 179.
The star batter’s runs made a louder statement than his post-match comments did. “I am not quite sure if you’ve been in that situation yourself to sit and speak about the game from a box,” Kohli told experts and perhaps analysts who throw up his adverse numbers against spin.
Data shows that Kohli strikes at 135 against pace and only 124 against spin in an IPL career spanning 17 seasons. His attacking percentage comes down by 13 % against spin as opposed to facing pace. Spinners slow him down in the powerplay (SR 116) and he doesn’t attack them enough (43%). The numbers don’t improve a great deal in the middle overs – SR 121, attacking % of 54. Finger spinners tie him down (SR 116) while he is more fluent against wrist spin (SR 137).
Despite these numbers, Kohli has managed to score more IPL runs than anybody else this year. Numbers only push all-format players like him, to course correct and change the batting tempo against certain bowling types. In Kohli’s case, finger spinners tie him down.
It is a weakness but one that Kohli can use too. If this is how teams are going to come at him, then he needs to go harder than ever against spinners. Just as he did against GT. Holding back doesn’t help him or his team and that could hurt them in the big games in the World Cup.
Kohli has spoken about how the RCB management wants either him or du Plessis to bat through the innings. But does India need him to do that same? If not, he has to keep attacking. The knock against GT showed that he can find the higher gear if he is desperate or angry enough.
The ongoing edition of IPL has served enough reminders that if you want to succeed in T20 cricket, you need to hit boundaries. This may not hold true for international cricket yet but Kohli is a smart enough cricketer to understand which way the wind is blowing.
India would hope to see a lot more of the Kohli that turned up against GT. It may not always translate to runs but that’s the nature of the T20 beast. And it is a truth that both Kohli and India need to acknowledge.
