IPL 2023 | Virat Kohli after record ton: People think my T20 game is declining

Pumped up after an unprecedented seventh IPL hundred, Virat Kohli on Sunday (May 21) took a dig at his critics who felt that he was all but over as a T20 batter, saying he is playing some of his best cricket in the shortest format.

Kohli, whose strike rate and batting against spin in the middle overs has often been questioned, has now scored back-to-back hundreds against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans, taking him atop the list of the highest number of century makers in the cash-rich league.

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“I felt great. 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 a snap interview with the BCCI’s world feed after his 61-ball 101 not out in a must-win final league game for RCB.

“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,” said Kohli, who is closing in on 12,000 career T20 runs.

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“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 Im batting,” said the man, who now has 639 runs and is second in this year’s run-getters list behind his skipper Faf du Plessis (730 runs).

Kohli said that he didn’t think about the threat of rain looming over the match.

“What matters is to stay in the present in these kind of situations. I wasn’t focusing on the rain, I was just focused on what I need to do for the team,” he said.