It will not be an exaggeration to say that Virat Kohli has looked like a pale shadow of himself in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Kohli has been inconsistent in the season. In the qualifier against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Kohli got out for a single-digit score and RCB could not make full use of the fielding restrictions. Reacting to Kohli’s ordinary run, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that the batter has committed too many mistakes this season.
"This is not the Virat Kohli that we know. This is a different Virat Kohli playing this season. Otherwise the number of mistakes that he has committed this season, he hasn't done it in his entire career," Sehwag told Cricbuzz after Kohli’s dismal show.
Kohli got out caught behind trying to chase a short delivery outside off stump in the second over of the innings bowled by Prasidh Krishna. Sehwag explained how an out-of-form batter thinks in the initial part of the innings.
"When you are out of form, then you have tendency of trying to middle each and every delivery. A batter thinks, if I can middle the ball, I will gain more confidence.
"However Virat did leave a lot of deliveries in that first over (from Trent Boult) but this is what happens when you are out of form. You tend to chase the deliveries wide outside the off-stump. You start following each of them. So when you have luck going your way, even in bad form, you will not edge it but here this didn't happen," Sehwag explained.
"The delivery that he got out to -- it had pace and bounce. So he could have either left it or may be just go hard at it. Who knows, it might have flown over keeper's head but what he did was give simple catch practice. It was as if he was giving catching practice like we do for the slip fielders during net session," Sehwag criticised his former teammate’s approach.
Kohli scored 341 runs from 16 games at an average of 22.73 including two half-centuries. His best performance came in RCB's must-win clash against Gujarat Titans (GT). In the international arena, he is yet to score a century in nearly two and a half years across formats.
Sehwag did not mince his words as RCB failed to make it to their fourth final after posting a mediocre total in the first innings.
"He has certainly disappointed everyone. We all expect that in a big game, the big player will perform, he disappointed not only himself but also his legion of fans and the RCB fans," Sehwag further added.
