“Take some risks”: Sunil Gavaskar sheds tears on Virat Kohli during his 43-ball 51 against SRH

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has criticized the innings of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) icon Virat Kohli in the IPL 2024 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday. Kohli, who scored 32 runs off his first 18 balls, had to slow down his innings after the early dismissals of captain Faf du Plessis and Will Jacks respectively. After this, he could only score 19 runs in his next 25 balls before being dismissed by Jaydev Unadkat. His strike rate was 118.6.

In contrast, Rajat Patidar scored 50 runs in just 20 balls, which included four sixes in one over off Mayank Markande.

However, the decline in Kohli’s strike-rate angered Gavaskar on-air. The great batsman suggested that Kohli should have taken more risks as RCB had some good batsmen to come after him.

“It’s just singles, singles and singles from Kohli. There’s [Dinesh] Arrival of Karthik; there is [Mahipal] Lomror is about to come. Now you have to try and take some risks. Look at Patidar. He had hit three sixes in that over. If he wanted, he could have taken a single or left the ball wide. But no, he did it because there was an opportunity,” Gavaskar said in the commentary.

Explaining the reason behind the decline in Kohli’s strike-rate, Gavaskar said that the batsman went into a shell after a point and could not get out of it despite his best efforts.

“RCB needs the same approach now. Yes, Kohli played and missed; it is not easy, because when you are in your shell, you are just working, and suddenly it is not easy to connect. But That’s what Kohli needs to do; he needs to try to hit the big shots,” he said.

“In the middle, it looked like he lost the rhythm. I’m not sure about the exact number, but I think from 31-32 till he got out, he didn’t hit any fours. So the day At the end of the day when you are facing strike on the first ball of the innings and you get out in the 14th or 15th over, your strike rate is 118, your team doesn’t expect that from you.”