England batting legend Jos Buttler has spoken about how he lost his form midway through IPL 2022 when the talk of him possibly breaking Virat Kohli’s record for most runs in one IPL season began affecting his game.

Virat Kohli had an amazing year in 2016, where he scored 973 runs with four centuries and 7 fifties, at an average of 81.08 and a strike rate of 152.03. He was captaining Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and took them to the final of the IPL 2016, where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

And a decade later, Kohli’s record of 973 runs still stands, despite many cricketers coming close to it. Shubman Gill made 890 runs in IPL 2023, while Jos Buttler made 863 runs in IPL 2022, and even David Warner had smashed 848 runs in IPL 2026, trailing Kohli.

Jos Buttler claimed that during his incredible 2022 IPL season, he found it difficult to handle the pressure of perhaps surpassing Virat Kohli's single-season batting record. With three hundreds and a half-century in the first seven games while playing for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), Buttler had an incredible start.

At the midway point of the league stage, Buttler was getting close to Kohli’s single-season record of 973 runs with nearly 500 runs. However, bad form struck as Buttler's following seven innings saw him score just one half-century, including four single-digit scores.

"The hard time came when I was on 450 to 500 runs at the halfway stage, and the talk was like, 'Can he reach Kohli's record?' I didn't deal with that well, actually, and I didn't tell anybody. Because of that, I got a few low scores. So I went from no expectations before the tournament to people asking if I could break Kohli's record and score 1000 runs in an IPL season. And that just killed me for a few games.

I finally told Trevor Penney that this and the Orange Cap were really in my head. The stuff you shouldn't be playing was affecting me. After that, I got my mojo back again in the playoffs. That was a massive season in my career even though I fell well short of Kohli. But at that time, it was the second most in a season and equalled him for the most hundreds in a season. Kohli is the best, so to put yourself in and around that was a huge confidence booster for me,” Buttler stated on the For the Love of Cricket YouTube channel.

Buttler finally finished the season on an incredible 863 runs at a strike rate of over 149 in 17 matches, including four centuries.

Due to a finger injury, Jos Buttler disclosed that he was undercooked and had little to no preparation for his incredible IPL 2022 season. In IPL history, the former England captain's 2022 season with 863 runs is still the third-highest in a single season.

"It was a COVID IPL, and it was all played in Mumbai. In January, I broke my finger, so I played no cricket coming into the tournament. It weirdly was the best preparation for that IPL. I turned up to that IPL undercooked, really with no expectations, which in hindsight was one of the big plusses," said Buttler.

"I started that tournament so well and actually had a wobble near the end. I just got in such a rhythm, and Sangakkara was a really good coach, and he just told me not to force it early. He said even if someday I was 30, not to force it and just wait until I felt it and was going. Also, all the games were in Mumbai with good batting surfaces,” he concluded.

Buttler’s brilliance with the bat helped Rajasthan Royals to the final of the IPL 2022, where they were defeated by debutants Gujarat Titans.