Michael Vaughan, former England captain, indicated that most teams would use spin bowlers to counter Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star batsman Virat Kohli for the rest of IPL 2023.
Kohli made his 5th fifty of the season on April 26, when RCB hosted the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Bengaluru. Former Indian captain Virat Kohli scored 54 runs in 37 balls, but it wasn’t enough as RCB lost to a spin-heavy KKR bowling attack and fell short of their 201-run target by 21 runs.
In the six innings that Kohli has played in the IPL 2023, he has a strike rate of 113.76 against spinners and has been dismissed four times. However, he was dismissed by Andre Russell of KKR after a spectacular catch by Venkatesh Iyer.
Speaking to the Cricbuzz after the RCB-KKR game, Michael Vaughan discussed the strategies the opposition might execute against Virat Kohli. He projected,
“A lot of teams are going to bowl spin against Virat because of his strike rate against them. I think he has a 107 strike rate against spin. So most teams are going to bowl spin against Virat Kohli and they are going to put three fielders at the mid-wicket.”
He added:
“I think his mindset after the powerplay is almost to be there at the 18th (over). I don’t think he is thinking about boundaries enough. I think he can (hit boundaries) because he is got the game, the power and the timing to be able to go and hit the six.”
“Can’t rely on the cameos from that middle-order” – Michael Vaughan on RCB’s batting performance
In their previous innings, RCB relied mainly on their foreign star batters to score runs. Faf du Plessis (442 runs), Virat Kohli (333 runs), and Glenn Maxwell (258 runs) make up 73% of RCB’s total runs. They have contributed 1053 of the entire 1365 runs scored.
The ineffectiveness of the inexperienced batting middle order and a mediocre Dinesh Karthik is an issue of concern for the team management.
Vaughan emphasized the need for the RCB middle-order batsmen to take chances and score runs, saying,
“They can’t rely on the cameos from that middle-order. He (Virat Kohli) is going to continue with the mentor of that first six. It’s like a team take a couple of more risks.“
On May 1, RCB will travel to Lucknow to take on the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium.