Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) once again ended their IPL journey on a sad note as they failed to make it to the finals, losing the second qualifier of IPL 2022 to the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by seven wickets.
Having to bat first after losing the toss, RCB could only gather 157 runs on the board at the loss of 8 wickets. Virat Kohli (7), Faf du Plessis (25), and Glenn Maxwell (24) failed to get the team going, as Rajat Patidar (58) once again carried RCB almost single-handedly to a decent total.
However, RR reached the target with 11 balls remaining, with Jos Buttler (106*) scoring his 4th century in this edition of the IPL, bringing RCB’s long-awaited dream of lifting the IPL trophy to a halt.
Virat Kohli once again failed to make an impact with the bat as he got dismissed early on in the innings. Chasing a wide delivery outside off-stump by RR pacer Prasidh Krishna, Kohli got caught behind after scoring 7 runs off 8 balls, with a six that came off an effortless flick of the wrist off Trent Boult.
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The poor batting form exhibited by the champion batter has been a topic of discussion in this season of the Indian Premier League. The former India and RCB captain had a terrible season, with 341 runs from 16 games to his name, at an average of 22.73 and a strike rate as low as 115.99.
Kohli also got dismissed for a golden duck three times this season, while he did score two half-centuries, Kohli failed to make an impactful contribution to his team.
Former India cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar had a few things to say about Kohli’s dismissal against the RR on Friday night.
"Virat wanting to be on the front foot no matter what is not helping his cause. Mental toughness takes you far, sure, but technical issues cannot be ignored completely. Crunch game.. front foot to a short of length bouncing ball cost him his wicket again," he tweeted.
Here is the tweet posted by Sanjay Manjrekar:
Virat Kohli’s struggle for runs started way before the commencement of the IPL 2022. The 33-year-old hasn’t hit the three-figure mark since 2019. Numerous former cricketers like Ravi Shastri and Kevin Pietersen have advised him to go for a break, as he was looking "overcooked".
Kohli himself admitted that the idea of taking a short break from the game was worth considering, as it could help one rejuvenate their mind and body.
Speaking about the same on Star Sports, Kohli said,"It is definitely a thing that one needs to consider because you don't want to do something which you are not a part of 100% and I have always believed in that in my life. So to take a break and when to take a break is obviously something that I need to take a call on, but it is only a healthy decision for anyone to take some time off and just rejuvenate yourself mentally and physically."
Kohli has been rested for the upcoming T20I series against South Africa and will be next seen in a Test against England that is set to start on 1st July.
