IPL 2024: Virat Kohli, balancing aggression with adaptation in IPL so far
Xtra Time Web Desk: Virat Kohli is the first centurion of Ipl 2024. In this season so far Virat Kohli has maintained a strike rate of 146. He has achieved a quicker scoring rate only once before, back in 2016 when he was in exceptional form, nearing the 1000-run milestone. Is this deliberate on his part? Is he attempting to approach his batting with more aggression and a different style?
"Look I'm not coming with any premeditation," Kohli said after making the first century of the 2024 season that took Royal Challengers Bangalore to a total of 183 on a Jaipur pitch that was on the slower side. "Whatever the surface allows me to do, I do that. Today I wasn't 20 off 9. I was 12 off 10."
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Kohli appears to be embracing more risk-taking, especially by aiming to hit over the top for boundaries. This season, he's hitting lofted shots more frequently per innings than in the past decade. However, he attributes this shift to his typical approach of evaluating the game as it unfolds. He remains confident that if required, he can elevate his game and score big whenever necessary.
He says, "So I knew I can't go over-aggressive. I don't want to be predictable. I know I can step up at any point because I'm hitting the ball well. But I want to keep the bowler guessing as to what I'm going to do. They probably want me to come hard at them so they can get me out or have an early breakthrough. But I feel like if I'm set and if I bat beyond six overs, then our chance of getting good totals becomes that much better. So, I guess it’s just experience and maturity over the years and understanding the conditions that you're playing. I basically play the conditions and I have the game ready to play in two or three different ways."
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Kohli's century on 6th April marked the eighth in his IPL career, surpassing any other batter in the tournament's history by two centuries. However, he required 67 balls to achieve this feat, making it one of the joint-slowest centuries. Kohli clarified that the challenge arose from the difficulty in executing desired shots due to the slow pace and low bounce. This played into the hands of the Rajasthan Royals spinners, who capitalized on these conditions to collectively amass figures of 8-0-62-2.
He says, "Nothing really came onto the bat. Even a few shots that I tried to play against Yuzvendra Chahal, just trying to slog him, they kept going under the bat. Even R Ashwin, it just felt like you couldn't get under the carrom ball to hit over midwicket. All you could target was straight if they missed their length. So, if you're consistent enough, the batters were finding it difficult out there.”
"The wicket feels like its flat but as soon as you see the ball holding up in the pitch, that's when you realise the pace is changing pretty quickly and then the big dimensions of the ground come into play. Our target initially was 190, 195, to be honest. But then assessing the pitch and how it was slowing down, we decided if one of Faf or me get out, then the other had to bat till the end so that we can get that boost closer to 180-185, which we did, which I feel is a very effective total on this pitch," he added.
Kohli has contributed 38% of all of RCB's runs this season. He holds the Orange Cap with a tally of 316 from five innings and has now crossed 7500 runs in the IPL.
