IPL 2016: 5 players who have been overshadowed by Virat Kohli
Irrespective of who wins IPL 2016, history and more importantly stats men will record it as the competition’s Virat Kohli edition, just like the 1981 series between England and Australia is known as Botham’s Ashes and Australia’s tour of West Indies in 1999 belonged to Brian Lara.
Cynics might scoff at the fact that both those feats were achieved in Test matches but the numbers achieved by the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper are just phenomenal, making light work of some other staggering performances.
Virat Kohli has amassed 919 runs in 14 matches at an average of 91.9 with 4 centuries and 6 fifties (in the league stage of the tournament). Just to put things in perspective, Kohli has more centuries than rest of the players combined (4 as compared to 3 by all others) and averages nearly 40 runs more than almost every other batsman in the top five. Metaphorically speaking, Kohli has taken IPL 2016 into his personal chamber, painted it with his colour and then returned it back to everyone.
Sad as it might be, Kohli has managed to take away the limelight from some brilliant performances by others in this tournament. While Kohli’s numbers put him in a parallel universe altogether, there are others who have performed exceptionally well on earth. Keeping the playoffs aside, let’s take a look at five cricketers who have been dramatically overshadowed by this genius run machine named Virat Kohli.
#1 Yuzvendra Chahal – 11 Matches, 19 Wickets
Though it is true that Virat Kohli has literally carried the Royal Challengers Bangalore on his shoulders, some of the credit for the team’s success should go to the bowling unit, which includes leggie Yuzvendra Chahal. Holder of the Purple Cap during the league stage of IPL 2016, Chahal has taken 19 wickets in just 11 games at an economy rate of 7.87. Not only this, his average of 17.05 is the best in the top 10 bowlers of the tournament.
He was particularly magnificent in the crunch matches against Kings XI Punjab (4/25) and Delhi Daredevils (3/32), stepping up just when his team needed him the most. Moreover, he is often the go-to man for Virat Kohli in a team that lacks the punch of a pure strike bowler. Chahal, along with Shane Watson, has kept RCB in the loop in the tournament, given the suspect nature of their bowling attack.