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Virat Kohli’s T20I future with Team India in the ICC World Cup year has become a major talking point amid the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. Even though Kohli is ruling the batting charts in the IPL 2024, his critics have questioned the strike rate of the former Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper. Returning to competitive cricket with the IPL 2024 after missing the entire England series due to personal reasons, Kohli became the first centurion of the new season with his brilliant knock against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur.
However, Kohli was overshadowed by Jos Buttler, who notched up his century in fewer deliveries to seal a comfortable win for the Rajasthan Royals. Interestingly, Kohli’s century against Sanju Samson and Co. was the joint-slowest in the history of the IPL. The former India skipper completed his century off 67 balls against the 2008 champions. Kohli played an unbeaten knock of 113 off 72 balls as RCB posted 183-3 in 20 overs. Riding on Buttler’s quick-fire 100 off 58 balls, RR completed the run chase in 19.1 overs.
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Talking about Kohli’s batting brilliance in the build-up to RCB’s match against Mumbai Indians at the IPL 2024, RCB superstar Glenn Maxwell labelled Kohli as the most clutch player. Recalling Kohli’s batting masterclass at Mohali in the 2016 T20 World Cup, Maxwell joked that selectors will do opponents a great favour by not picking Kohli in India’s World Cup squad.
“Virat Kohli is the most clutch player I have ever played against. The innings he played against us in Mohali during the 2016 T20 World Cup is still the best innings I have ever seen been played against me. His awareness of what he needs to do to win the game is just phenomenal. I hope India don’t pick him because it will be great to not come up against him,” Maxwell told ESPN.
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Kohli can secure an IPL record against Mumbai at the Wankhede. The former RCB skipper is four sixes away from becoming the fourth batter to smash 250 IPL sixes. Batting icon Kohli is also the leading run-getter at the IPL 2024. Batting at a strike rate of 146.29, Kohli has amassed 316 runs in five matches. “It’s not surprising because there are 1.5 billion and I reckon half of them are unbelievable cricketers in this country (laughs). It’s a hard team to get into. You look at India’s top T20 players which are all playing in this tournament. They are phenomenal players and there should be heat on every player,” Maxwell added.
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