Ravi Shastri gives advice to Virat Kohli over strike rate debate, says don’t worry about other batters

Royal Challengers Bangalore batter Virat Kohli returned among runs in the Indian Premier League 2023 after having a couple of moderate IPL campaigns. The former RCB captain has been among the leading run-scorers this season and has already made over 400 runs at an average of above 45. Kohli opens alongside RCB captain Faf du Plessis and has shared some big partnerships with the Proteas star. Meanwhile, Kohli’s strike rate after the powerplay has come under scrutiny and cricket experts are having a say on it.

Recently, India’s former head coach Ravi Shastri has given a piece of advice to Kohli on the ongoing debate. Shastri has said that Kohli should not change the tempo of his batting and should not worry even if RCB’s middle order looks thin.

“Once you gain tempo, don’t change, don’t worry about the others. That will be my message to Virat. Let them do their job. In a T20 game, you don’t need that many batsmen. If you are hot keep that going. A prime example of that was Phil Salt. You saw the way he batted. Once he got into the groove he didn’t let go,” Shastri said to ESPNCricinfo. 

He added that Salt’s approach took the burden off the other DC batters and Virat should do the same and up the ante. “It took the pressure off the other batsmen. Having said, even they were hammering whether it was Marsh or Roussow. So that is something that could be there from Virat’s point of view. If he gets going don’t change your tempo, try and up the ante,” he added.

Kohli had also spoken about his strike rate after the victory against Lucknow Super Giants, a few days ago. “There are many people who because they have not been in that situation themselves, they look at the game differently. 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,” he had said

Latest Cricket News