Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has highlighted Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) ‘pain points’ in IPL 2022. They lost to Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium to bow out of the tournament.
The cricketer-turned-commentator picked Virat Kohli’s indifferent performances with the bat as one of the pain points that has troubled Bangalore throughout the season. Kohli aggregated 341 runs in 16 games at an underwhelming average of 22.73 and a low strike rate of 115.98.
The talismanic run-scorer got out for ducks on three occasions and managed only two fifties throughout IPL 2022. Aakash Chopra reckoned that Virat Kohli not scoring at a good rate had hurt RCB massively. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra said:
“The pain points were that the top three batters just failed to perform. If you see Virat Kohli’s year, Virat Kohli was not Virat Kohli. 16 matches, 341 runs at a strike rate of 115. You might have said it is fine even with 341 runs if the strike rate had been around 140.”
He added:
“Only two half-centuries, that too against just one side. Other than that, he hasn’t scored any runs. He reached 48 once and scored an unbeaten 40-odd in the first match but very ordinary season by his standards and by any standards.”
16 innings, 341 runs @ 22.73, 2 fifties, and just 8 sixes
Virat Kohli failed to make an impact with the bat in IPL 2022 🫤#ViratKohli #RCB #IPL2022 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/ODq0kXQLdk
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) May 31, 2022
“If Virat Kohli is not having a gun season, Maxi needs to have an extremely gun season” – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra also reckoned that Glenn Maxwell‘s inconsistent return also didn’t do the Royal Challengers any good. He added:
“Glenn Maxwell, on whom you placed a huge bet, 301 runs in 13 matches, it is slightly underperforming but the strike rate is very high, more than 160. He picked up wickets in bowling as well, takes catches as well. But one thing is that if Virat Kohli is not having a gun season, Maxi needs to have an extremely gun season, which didn’t happen.”
Aakash Chopra concluded by picking Mohammed Siraj not being amongst the wickets and proving extremely expensive as well as another pain point for RCB. The Hyderabad-born picked up just nine wickets in 15 matches and had an alarmingly high economy rate of 10.08.
