Despite being the most successful batter in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Indian run-machine Virat Kohli has failed to fire for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after stepping down as the leader of the Bangalore-based franchise. Kohli’s former RCB teammate and former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson expects the talismanic batter of the Bangalore giants to regain his form sooner or later.
Watson, who was earlier roped in as the batting coach of the Delhi Capitals (DC) franchise for IPL 2022, spoke at length about Kohli’s batting woes amid the 15th season of the cash-rich league. Kohli is yet to score a half-century in the 2022 edition of the world’s richest T20 league. According to the former Australian all-rounder, batting icon Kohli has a lifetime’s worth of credit. Watson believes that Kohli will remain a sure-starer in the Indian playing XI even though the batting maestro is yet to score big in competitive cricket.
“In the end, Virat has got close to a lifetime’s worth of credit. He will come good, everyone knows he will come good. It’s about his decision, whether he thinks he will take some time off, whether he thinks he needs that, whether he decides to keep playing with a little bit of time to freshen up, he will be able to find it very quickly,” Watson told The Grade Cricketer.
Regarded as one of the greatest batters across all formats of the game, batting icon Kohli is the all-time leading run-getter in the cash-rich league. The 33-year-old has amassed 6,411 runs from 211 matches in the IPL. The only player to feature in 15 seasons of the cash-rich league for a single franchise, Kohli has scored 128 runs from 8 matches in the IPL 2022.
“You don’t lose your skill as he has got, it can be suppressed a little bit because of the situations or you’re a little bit tired or whatever, it can happen in the game of cricket. No one has gone about their career scoring runs non-stop, especially in a long career. There will be little periods where there will be a little bit of downtime. But Virat, he is just so good, he will find his way. He has got a lot of credit in his bank,” the former Australian cricketer added.
