Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar has praised Virat Kohli for finding the right balance between aggression and consistency in the T20 format. Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Gujarat Titans by five wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Sunday to win their second IPL title.
Chasing 156 for the win, Kohli scored a fine knock of 75 runs off just 42 balls. The talisman struck nine fours and three sixes in his blistering knock as he batted at the top of his game. The veteran once again made the most of his experience in the run-chase and got the job done for his team.
Sanjjay Manjrekar said on his Instagram handle, “At this stage, watching him in this tournament, he has mastered the art of T20 batting that is needed in IPL cricket. Which means now he knows that he has to score at a 150 to 160 strike rate. So he cashes in the first six overs. The most important thing is that he has found this power game, which is just about optimum. It’s almost like he is in third and fourth gear, while the others are trying to hit at a strike rate of 200 and 230.”
“Because of that, there are mishits, and they have to be lucky with someone dropping a catch, and then their innings flourish. Virat Kohli has ensured that there aren’t any mishits because he’s just hitting the ball long enough to go over the boundary, thereby ensuring his technique and balance is right. The bottom hand jab comes into play.”
Manjrekar praised Kohli for constantly evolving his T20 batting as per the modern needs and said the talisman finds ways to deliver consistently.
“When hitting boundaries, Kohli is still big on fours rather than sixes like he does in white-ball international cricket. Having mastered the art of T20 batting, I don’t see it quickly fading away from Kohli. He will keep working on his fitness, and he has found this template to be consistent and go with the modern times of strike rate. This form of Virat Kohli will be there for a while, and thereby, RCB will be very fortunate and, in a way, very deserving as well,” said Manjrekar (via the aforementioned source).
Kohli scored a total of 675 runs in 16 matches of IPL 2026 at an average of 56.25 and a strike rate of 165.84.
