Virat Kohli’s strike rate has been a hotly debated topic in the ongoing IPL 2024. Kohli was slammed by Sunil Gavaskar after the batter had blasted critics in an explosive interview over criticism about his scoring rate against spinners.
Last week, after scoring an unbeaten 70 off 44 against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad, which included 61 runs against spinners at a strike rate of 179, his third-best against the variety in a single IPL innings, Kohli responded to critics who questioned his ability to score against tweakers and in the middle overs.
However, Sunil Gavaskar slammed Virat Kohli for his statement and added that commentators only criticized him when he would get out before the slog overs after registering a strike rate of below 120.
“Commentators questioned only when the strike rate was 118. I’m not too sure. I don’t watch too many matches, so I don’t know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you have a strike of 118 and then you get out in the 14th or the 15th with a strike-rate of 118, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different. That’s different,” he told Star Sports.
“All these guys talk about, oh we don’t care about outside noise. Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening,” added Gavaskar.
Virat Kohli has been named in India’s T20 World Cup squad and there are speculations that he might even open with Rohit Sharma in the ICC event.
“Virat Kohli is going to come in and look to strike away” – Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden, an Australian cricket icon, rekindled the ‘ strike rate’ debate by weighing in on the possibility of the former Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain opening for India in the next T20 World Cup.
Hayden noted that Kohli’s strike rate is higher than any of his previous four IPL seasons. He believes that given India’s batting power, Kohli, 35, will take an aggressive approach wherever he bats for the squad.
“That strike rate is trending in the right direction, it’s trending up. Look at the IPL over the last four years, it’s gone from mid and around that 120 then it goes 130 and then 140 and 150. So 150 for me is kind of that sweet spot that starts in and everyone having conversation well where you bat? Is it three, is it open? You know those first six overs, it doesn’t matter if Kohli is in those first six overs. You know that there’s going to be fireworks,” Hayden said on Star Sports.
Overall, Kohli has played just nine T20I matches as an opener, scoring 400 runs at a strike rate of 161.29. This includes his only T20I century, 122* against Afghanistan in the 2022 Asia Cup tournament.
“You also know that these conditions that are going to be in the West Indies. They’re not so sure about those conditions in New York. I’ve seen that overlaid venue and it looks magnificent. But certainly through the West Indies, they’re going to be benign conditions and Kohli is going to come in and look to strike away knowing that he has a superb batting side that also has a great strike rate,” Hayden added.
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