IPL 2023: Virat Kohli redefined T20 batting in 2016 season – Aakash Chopra

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra reckons Virat Kohli gave a new dimension to T20 batting after his exemplary run in the IPL 2016 season. Kohli was in beast mode in the 2016 edition of the IPL, amassing a record-breaking 973 runs in 16 matches, including four centuries.

The right-hander checked all the right boxes as he was a man on a mission. However, RCB floundered in the all-important IPL final against Sunrisers Hyderabad and thus could not go all the way.

Chopra revealed that he never considered Kohli to be a rockstar in the T20 format but he was able to prove him wrong. Kohli is not known for his batting pyrotechnics and he relies more on timing, playing along the ground, and his ability to convert ones into twos while running full throttle between the sticks.

“If you looked at Virat Kohli the batter before that, you knew he could get you runs but nobody looked at him as a quintessential rockstar T20 batter. He was more of a collector, grafter, maybe he would hit boundaries, but very rarely would you see him take the aerial route and hit five sixes in ten balls. He was not that kind of a player,” Chopra, a former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player, told JioCinema.

“Virat Kohli redefined the batting in T20 cricket in that particular season. He proved that you can play T20 cricket with proper technique, even with that, not one or two, but he scored four centuries. That season was just phenomenal, he was a man possessed,” he added.

Kohli had failed to deliver the goods in the previous season and he would want to turn the tables in the upcoming edition. The talisman had scored 341 runs in 16 matches in IPL 2022 at a below-par average of 22.73 and a strike rate of 115.98.

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli is the highest run-getter in the history of the IPL, amassing 6624 runs in 223 matches at an average of 36.2 and a strike rate of 129.15. Kohli has performed consistently for RCB over the years and he has been their best batter.

RCB will begin their IPL 2023 campaign against Mumbai Indians at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on 2nd April.