‘Virat Kohli redefined batting in T20 cricket’- Former Indian cricketer’s massive statement on India’s run-machine

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli is gearing up to take the batting charge of the Bangalore franchise in the upcoming season of the Indian T20 League. Fans will be expecting him to perform big after a disastrous season last year where the former Bangalore skipper scored 341 runs in 16 matches at an average of 22.73 with only two fifties.

Kohli is the kind of player who believes in technique and even in T20 cricket, where the batters try to hit every ball out of the park, he keeps building the innings with singles and doubles and maintains the run rate of the team. Former Indian cricketer, Aakash Chopra praised the 34-year-old for redefining the style of batting in the shortest format of the games.

‘Virat Kohli redefined the batting in T20 cricket’ – Aakash Chopra

Chopra also mentioned the 2016 season where Kohli smashed record 973 runs from 16 matches including four centuries. The cricketer-turned-commentator said that Kohli showed that the T20 format can also be played with great technique.

“If you looked at Virat Kohli the batter before that, you knew he could get you runs but nobody looked at him as a quintessential rockstar T20 batter. He was more of a collector, grafter, maybe he would hit boundaries, but very rarely would you see him take the aerial route and hit five sixes in ten balls. He was not that kind of a player. Virat Kohli redefined the batting in T20 cricket in that particular season. He proved that you can play T20 cricket with proper technique, even with that, not one or two, but he scored four centuries. That season was just phenomenal, he was a man possessed,” Chopra said on JIo Cinema.

Kohli is also the leading run-scorer of all time in the Indian T20 League having amassed 6624 runs in 223 matches for Bangalore at an average of 36.43. He is also the only player to play most matches for a single franchise in Indian T20 League. He was picked by Bangalore in the inaugural season in 2008 and will be playing his 16th season for the same team in the upcoming season.

The tournament will kickstart on March 31st with an opening match between Gujarat and Chennai in Ahmedabad. While Bangalore will start their 2023 campaign at their home ground with a match against Mumbai on April 2nd.