That’s how Virat Kohli should approach the upcoming IPL, feels South African batting legend and his former Royal Challenge B’luru teammate AB de Villiers
RCB’s Virat Kohli during last season’s Indian Premier League. Pic/BCCI; IPL
Despite being one of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s most consistent performers, Virat Kohli’s strike rate has been a hot topic of discussion in the last two seasons. However, with the franchise acquiring the English duo of Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone, along with Australian Tim David and West Indian Romario Shepherd — all fearless strikers of the ball — South African batting great AB de Villiers feels the pressure will be off Kohli and he can play with more freedom.
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“Virat seems to be enjoying his cricket. I don’t think he’s going to have to up his strike rate batting with Phil Salt,” De Villiers said on JioStar Press Room on Tuesday.
‘Phil Salt will attack’
“Salt is one of the most attacking players we’ve ever seen. I think he’s going to take a lot of pressure off Virat. Virat needs to continue what he’s been doing for so many years...control the game, play smart cricket. He’s got the best instinct of any player out there. He knows exactly when to up the ante
a bit and when to lower it.”
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The South African, who played for RCB for 11 seasons, said Kohli needs to ensure there are no batting collapses. “Virat needs to be the captain of the batting department in this tournament and just keep things together, play smart cricket to make sure they don’t find those collapses in the batting order.”
AB de Villiers
Unnecessary criticism
The former Proteas skipper felt Kohli has been subjected to unnecessary criticism over the last few seasons. “There’s no doubt some of the outside noise may have influenced him a bit. He’s only human, he’s definitely got those doubts in his head. But the one thing about Virat is that he’s always had the ability to, when it matters most, when he crosses that line for his team, block everything out and it’s business time.”
With Faf du Plessis’ departure, RCB enter the season with a new captain in Rajat Patidar. De Villiers felt Patidar’s biggest challenge will be self-doubt as he steps into the shoes of past captains like Du Plessis and Kohli.
Pressure on Patidar
“His [Patidar] biggest challenge will be insecurity, stepping into the big boots of the past captains like Faf and Virat., He may constantly doubting himself. He needs to stay true to who he is and not try to captain like Virat or Faf. He should use the experience of Virat, [RCB head coach] Andy Flower
and some of the other players.”
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