Former Australian skipper Aaron Finch has opined that Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) talisman Virat Kohli doesn’t need to bat like Rohit Sharma in the upcoming Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL) 2025 season.
Kohli will look to carry his Champions Trophy form as RCB kick-off their IPL 2025 campaign against the defending Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens on Saturday (March 22).
During the IPL 2024 season, Kohli faced criticism over his strike rate time and again as he had to evolve his game in the second half of the tournament.
Ahead of the upcoming edition, Finch was asked if Kohli should bat in a similar manner like former Mumbai Indians captain Rohit, who’s been going after the bowling right from the outset.
Finch replied by saying that Rohit has a lot of batters around whom the entire team can bat and he has Kohli at number three in international cricket, which allows him to bat with freedom at the top.
“When you look at the way that Rohit's done it, have a look at the players that he's had around him. He's still had the foundations of a player that the team can bat around him. So it's okay to walk out and swing from the hip and look to try and dominate and hit a lot of sixes from early in your innings. But you have to understand the dynamics of the team around that,” Finch was quoted as saying by PTI.
Furthermore, Finch pointed out that Kohli has had the responsibility of bailing RCB out of trouble time and again.
"When you look, when Rohit's made that conscious decision, he's had Virat coming in behind him at number three. So there's an ability for him to say, you know what, I've got the guy behind that will fix any mistakes that I make. And I understand that Rohit's done that and he's been very successful doing it. Maybe if his strike rate goes from 140 to 150, he can absolutely do that. No issues whatsoever. But how many times has he been in a situation where he's had to almost dig RCB out of the hole because everybody else has fallen around him?” he added.
In the 2024 season, Kohli made 319 runs in his first six innings at a strike rate of 141.77. However, he made a remarkable turnaround in the second half of the season scoring 422 runs in the next nine innings at a strike of 166.14.
He finished the season as the highest run-getter with 741 runs from 15 innings at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69 -- his highest ever in an IPL season.
