Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are currently at the eighth place in the points table in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team began its campaign with a loss in the tournament opener at the hands of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). But they defeated Punjab Kings in the last over thriller courtesy of a stupendous knock from Virat Kohli. But since then, RCB have lost two more matches much to the disappointment of the fans.
Only Virat Kohli has proved to be consistent with the bat scoring 203 runs in four matches while the next best batter is Dinesh Karthik with 90 runs batting at seven. Such a stark gap is what putting Kohli under a lot of pressure at the moment according to Steve Smith. The likes of Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis and Cameron Green have not clicked at all so far this season and Smith reckons the other batters will have to step up before time runs out for RCB.
"He needs the other key batters to stand up with him, and if they do that, they can turn things around for their season. But, at the moment, they're not so a lot of pressure is on Virat. I doubt he'd be putting extra pressure on himself. (But) some of the other top-order and middle-order (batters) need to help Virat," Smith told PTI.
Meanwhile, the former Australia skipper also rubbished off the criticism related to strike-rate for Virat Kohli and pointed out that the former RCB skipper moulds his game according to conditions. Smith felt that Kohli goes big whenever there is a need. "Virat is an incredible player. What he does really well, and probably better than most people in the world, is (that) he sums up the conditions and the situation of the game and plays accordingly. If he needs to strike big, he does. If he needs to bring it back a little bit and build some partnerships.
"You don't need 180 on every ground; 150-160 might be enough on some grounds. Virat sums up the conditions really well and the situation. I'm not fussed about the strike rate," Smith further added.
