Former England skipper Michael Vaughan reckons teams are going to target Virat Kohli with spinners because of his low strike rate against them in the ongoing Tata IPL 2023. Kohli scored a decent knock of 54 runs off just 37 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Kohli has a strike rate of 113.76 against spinners in IPL 2023 so far and he hasn’t been able to hit the top gear against the spinners. The talisman has scored 333 runs in eight matches of IPL 2023 at an average of 47.57 and a strike rate of 142.31.
Michael Vaughan said on Cricbuzz, “A lot of teams are going to bowl spin against Virat because of his strike rate against them. I think he has a 107 strike rate against spin. So most teams are going to bowl spin against Virat Kohli and they are going to put three fielders at the mid-wicket.”
He added: “I think his mindset after the powerplay is almost to be there at the 18th (over). I don’t think he is thinking about boundaries enough. I think he can (hit boundaries) because he is got the game, the power and the timing to be able to go and hit the six.”
Kohli has been in good form but he could not bat deep against KKR after Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis were dismissed early on Wednesday and thus suffered a 21-run loss. In fact, there is no doubt that RCB are too dependent on the trio as they have contributed 73% of all runs scored by RCB – 1053 runs out of a total of 1365.
On the other hand, the middle order hasn’t been able to deliver the goods for RCB. Vaughan added that they can’t rely on cameos from the middle order and they need to play a more significant role for the team.
Vaughan said: “They can’t rely on the cameos from that middle-order. He (Virat Kohli) is going to continue with the mentor of the first six. It’s like a team take a couple of more risks.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to get back to winning ways in their next match against Lucknow Super Giants on Monday.
