Virat Kohli is “under a lot of pressure” in the ongoing Indian Premier League due to the collective failure of the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen, and former Australia captain Steve Smith believes he hopes it will The RCB teammate of the Indian superstar is capable of excelling in the supporting role. Kohli had a solitary campaign for RCB in this season’s IPL, scoring 203 runs in four games at 67.66 with two fifties. The second-best batsman Dinesh Karthik, who scored 90 runs in as many games, is far behind.

Despite Kohli’s solid performance, RCB lost three out of four matches and dropped to eighth place in the points table. The likes of Glenn Maxwell, captain Faf du Plessis and Cameron Green have not been doing well with the bat so far.

“He needs other key batsmen to stand with him and if they do, they can turn the season around. But, at the moment, they are not putting much pressure on Virat,” Smith, Star Sports Incredible Star Cast A member of the group told PTI in an exclusive interaction at the channel’s studio.

“I doubt he will put extra pressure on himself. (But) some other top and middle-order (batsmen) need to help Virat,” he said.

Smith warned that Kohli will not score runs in every game and the RCB batsmen must work together.

“He has started really well in the IPL and he needs some support. He is not going to score runs every time,” he said.

“But, I doubt he thinks so. I don’t think he’s going to go out and put extra pressure on himself. He’s just going to go out there and see what happens in that game.” Smith dismissed Kohli’s comments that he has made time and time again in his career Criticism faced for his batting average said no player in the world could read the situation as well as the Indian batsmen. Kohli scored over 140 in this year’s IPL.

“Virat is an unbelievable player. What he does really well, probably better than most people in the world, is sum up the conditions and situations of the game and play accordingly,” He said.

“If he needs to go big, he’ll do that. If he needs to recover a little bit and build some partnerships… you don’t need to be 180 in every aspect; 150 in some aspects – 160 might be enough,” he added.

“Virat summed up the conditions and situation very well. I’m not fussed about the strike rate,” Smith continued.

Smith also spoke about another controversial subplot in the IPL – Hardik Pandya’s captaincy of Mumbai Indians and the backlash he faced from fans. He understands why Pandya has been mocked in all three games so far but also hopes fans will stop dwelling on the past.

“Yeah and no. Obviously, there was (booing) in the first two games. It’s kind of become a thing, if that makes sense. But, I think it’s unfortunate. I’d love to see them Support Hardik. Obviously, there are a lot of loyal Rohit fans out there,” he said.

“A lot of people are a bit annoyed that he is not the captain of the team. But, everyone needs to let go of that and support Hardik. He is a fantastic player. He had a lot of success with Gujarat (Titans). He comes back He is now the captain of the Mumbai team.

“The senior players need to help him,” Smith said.

Smith, who was the subject of intense international scrutiny as Australia captain following a ball-tampering incident in Cape Town in 2018 and was banned for a year, shared some insights into what it would take to get out of jail.

“While all these negatives are there, he has to find ways to deal with them and coping mechanisms,” Smith said.

“Everyone does things differently. Me personally, I just block everything out. I don’t listen to anything; I don’t listen to any comments or catcalls or anything like that.

“It’s hard to say, but you just have to go with it. Stop it as much as you can and then get on with the job at hand. I think the best way he can turn people around is if Mumbai start winning, that’s the key thing,” Smith said.

However, Smith dismissed suggestions that off-field drama was a factor in MI’s third consecutive defeat.

“One thing about Mumbai Indians is that they are notoriously poor in their opening performances in the tournament. They have done that on many occasions,” he said.

“I don’t think they’re too worried yet. But, they have to turn things around real quick. It doesn’t look good, 0-3 bottom. They have to turn things around really fast,” he added.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)