"They have not been in that situation themselves"- Virat Kohli responds to critics like Simon Doull on his strike rate

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star batter Virat Kohli's strike rate was a topic of debate after their loss to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Former New Zealand cricketer and well-known commentator Simon Doull had criticized Kohli for slowing down post the powerplay.

Here's what Doull had said during that game on air:

“Virat Kohli started off like a train. He was hammering shots. But from 42 to 40 they took 10 balls. He’s concerned about his personal milestone. I don’t think there’s room for that in this game anymore. You’ve just got to keep going, especially with wickets in hand at that stage. You’ve got to keep going."

In a conversation with former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa on Jio Cinema, Virat Kohli opened up on the role of an anchor in T20 cricket and the criticism that comes with it. He said:

"Yeah for sure (important anchor role). I completely agree with that, There are many people who because they have not been in that situation themselves, look at the game differently."

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Virat Kohli on batters 'slowing down' after powerplay

Virat Kohli also spoke about how the dynamics of an innings change when the fielding restrictions of the powerplay are relaxed. He feels that it's natural for the batters to take a couple of overs and rotate strike to understand how to approach a particular bowler in the middle overs.

On this, Kohli stated:

"Suddenly when the powerplay is done, they will be like ‘Oh, they have started rotating the strike’. When you haven’t lost a wicket in the powerplay, usually the best player comes on to bowl, you are trying to figure out what to do against him in the first two overs so that you can get big ones in the last two overs of that guy and then rest of the innings become much easier."

Kohli scored yet another half-century for RCB this season, this time against the Delhi Capitals on Saturday.

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