3, 1, 14 – These are Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli’s scores in IPL 2020 so far. RCB would like to believe this a lull before the storm and the storm might just come in their next match against Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi.
Kohli, who is the leading run-scorer of the IPL, has a chance to make history against the Royals. Kohli is 82 runs from completing 9,000 runs in T20s.
If he does find form and scores those 82 runs on Saturday then he would become the first Indian player to get to the landmark.
Overall Kohli would become the 7th batsman to get to 9000 T20 runs.
In 269 innings, Kohli has 8918 runs in T20s at an average of 40.72 and a strike rate of 134.24 with five hundreds and 64 fifties to his name.
In IPL, he has 5430 runs in 180 matches – the most. But the RCB captain is the only one in this IPL in their top four comprising Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Kohli, and AB de Villiers – not to register a 50-plus score.
RCB too have had a mixed start to the tournament. While they have registered important victories against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians, they did suffer a crushing defeat against Kings XI Punjab.
Both Kohli and RCB would look to stamp their authority against RR, who have struggled with their bowling at the death.
Kohli’s biggest concern, however, would be to tackle England’s Jofra Archer. The right-arm pacer generated some serious pace in the last match against KKR and he will be looking unsettle Kohli at the beginning.
Source: IPLT20.com