Strike Rate - Virat Kohli’s Secondary Enemy

It’s been a while since we have heard Virat Kohli’s bat do the talking in its usual loud, and clear way. Sure, we have seen occasional glimpses of his batting excellence over the last 2 years or more. But we would rather prefer the hot & striking Virat Kohli when two major ICC Tournaments are just around the corner, won’t we?

Lately, Virat Kohli’s form has been the subject of his not so “Virat-Esque” performances. But there’s another silent enemy that has not been addressed. It’s his strike rate. Strike Rate is a tricky metric to judge a batsman. One can score 4 runs off 4 balls and hit a 6 on the 5th ball to get a SR of 200. But Strike Rate is also closely related to the pacing of an innings which is how we can judge the quality of an innings.

And that is an alarming concern that haunts Virat Kohli, especially in the T20s. His ability to hit boundaries more often during his innings once settled is low. The pace of his innings is only accelerated in the death or the slog overs. 

In today’s Eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants, Virat Kohli managed to score 25 runs off 24 balls. Now that is not what an opener’s statistics should look like in a T20 game. One can argue that he was the 2nd fiddle in the partnership with Rajat Patidar who was striking the ball at will.

But Virat’s 25 runs had just 2 boundaries, out of which one was a not-so-controlled shot. And mind you, Faf Du Plessis was dismissed in the first over and Patidar was batting with intent from ball one. Avesh Khan got the better of Kohli with a perfectly angled short ball.

With the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, and the ODI World Cup at Home in India in 2023, we truly hope Kohli finds his rhythm and gets back to his best, and contributes to the Indian team, like always.