Virat Kohli says he is playing his best Twenty20 cricket again, but at 34, the superstar batsman is running out of time to win the Indian Premier League. Kohli scored another century for Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday – his second in as many matches – and he now has seven IPL tons, more than any other player. But his 101 not out wasn’t enough. Gujarat Titans won by six wickets as they, Chennai, Mumbai and Lucknow advanced to the playoffs of the world’s largest T20 tournament.
“A lot of people think my T20 cricket is declining. I don’t feel like that at all,” said Kohli afterwards. “I think I’m playing my best T20 cricket again.”
That could be so, but for Kohli and Bangalore it was just the latest IPL failure. Since the tournament’s inception in 2008, the franchise has never won the title in 16 attempts – finishing second three times.
Kohli captained Bangalore for nine of those seasons and at the end of the 2021 edition, he decided to give up leading the team. That was in the midst of a rough patch for Kohli when the magic with the bat failed him and he admitted that he had mental health issues.
In 2020, he had relinquished the Indian T20 captaincy after a disastrous World Cup and was sacked as ODI skipper. He then retired as Test captain. Kohli later admitted that he would do “fake intensity” to put on a brave front and that he got “feisty” to his Bollywood actress wife Anushka Sharma.
“When I left (the) Test captain, I only got messages from MS Dhoni and no one else,” Kohli said last September.
“Lots of people have my number and are saying things on TV, but no one has messaged me.”
Melbourne miracle
A fresh-faced 19-year-old Kohli made his debut in India the same year the IPL started and became the fastest batsman to reach 10,000 ODI runs in 2018. As a test skipper, he took India to the top of the league table and in 2019 led led his team to a first-ever test series triumph in Australia.
But his leanness meant he couldn’t manage a century in any format for nearly two years, until he broke the Asia Cup drought last September with an unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan. He followed this up in October with 82 not out in a stunning victory over Pakistan at Australia’s T20 World Cup, an innings dubbed the “Miracle in Melbourne” that even grudgingly won respect from India’s arch-rival.
Kohli hasn’t looked back, scoring three ODI hundreds in four games and then his first Test century in over three years against Australia in Ahmedabad in March.
Deserted
In this IPL, Kohli and Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis were one of the most reliable opening pairs, with over 1,000 runs between them. The South African scored the highest in the regular season. with Kohli third.
But other than Australian stunner Glenn Maxwell, the lower order failed to fire, most notably Specialist finisher Dinesh Karthik. Bangalore’s bowlers also failed to deliver when it really mattered.
“I think we’re a little light in the middle order if we’re honest with ourselves,” Du Plessis said.
“We’ve consistently missed a few runs all season, especially at the end of the innings.”
“And I think from a bowling perspective we were really good and consistent on the power play. In the middle (overs) maybe we didn’t get as many wickets as we would have liked,” he said after Sunday’s defeat.
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