Royal Challengers Bangalore might have taken an exit from the IPL 2023 after a nail-biting loss to Gujarat Titans on May 21 but there was a season to remember for the former RCB captain Virat Kohli. The RCB opener amassed 639 runs in his 14 outings and hit 6 fifties and 2 back-to-back hundreds to cap off the season. He scored his 7th IPL century, a record-breaking one, and then hit back at critics for thinking he is on a decline in T20 cricket.
After remaining unbeaten on 101 off 61 balls, Kohli interacted with the broadcasters and opened up about his innings. "I felt great. A lot of people think that my T20 cricket is declining, I don't feel like that at all. I think I am playing my best T20 cricket again," Kohli said during an interview in the mid-innings of the RCB vs GT game.
Virat Kohli and the other two big batters of RCB - Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell have done the major lifting this season as the middle order failed to stand up to the expectations. Kohli also opened up on how he paced his knock against the Titans. "I'm just enjoying myself.
This is how I play T20 cricket, I look to hit gaps, hit a lot of boundaries and then the big ones towards the end if the situation allows me to," Kohli said on his knock. "You have to read situations and rise up to the occasion when the situation demands.
I feel really good with my game at the moment and how I'm batting," he added.
Kohli hit his 7th IPL ton and went past Chris Gayle's record of most tons in the Indian cash rich league. He also became the third batter to score back-to-back hundreds in IPL. Kohli made 100 off 63 balls in RCB's victoory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier in the tournament. Menawhile, Shubman Gill, who powered GT to a 6-wicket win over RCB, became the fourth batter with consective hundreds in the tournament. He also hit a hundred against Sunrisers Hyderabad in GT's 34-run victory over the Aiden Markram's side.
