Retirement from Test cricket has not taken the aggressive edge out of Virat Kohli and the star batter is ambitiously specializing in what he can achieve with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in this version of the IPL, asserted staff director Mo Bobat right here on Friday.
Kohli bid adieu to the standard format earlier this week, amassing 9230 runs from 123 Tests with 30 a whole bunch.
“The first thing to say is Virat’s business as usual, as he always is. There’s enough of the public and the nation’s attention on him, and he doesn’t want any more of that. He’s ambitious about what we can achieve this year with RCB and that’s what he does,” said Bobat during a pre-match press conference.
Bobat was in awe of Kohli the Test batter, an all-weather dominator of oppositions in his peak.
“He ought to be extremely pleased with what he’s accomplished as a Test participant for India. RCB as a franchise, we’re all extremely pleased with what each certainly one of our gamers does for India, however particularly him.
“To play 120 plus Test matches and to score nearly 10,000 runs is no mean feat. Also as a captain, his record, 60 per cent win percentage or something like that as captain, again, no mean feat,” he added.
As a coach, Bobat had shut encounters with Kohli even earlier than he joined the RCB.
Bobat watched the genius of Kohli from shut quarters when he was with the England teaching set-up in 2018.
“I can also talk from my previous role as an Englishman working in the English system. He was someone you never wanted to play against, he was always the batter you wanted to get out. You knew that if he was either in the pavilion to come or at the crease, you were in trouble,” he said.
Bobat reminisced about Kohli’s seminal performance against England during the 2018 series where the Indian virtuoso hammered 593 runs for five Tests at an average close to 60.
“Some of my most fondest reminiscences watching Test cricket contain him. I’ll always remember the 2018 collection in England, the Test at Edgbaston, watching Jimmy Anderson and him do battle like two gladiators.
“Jimmy must have bowled nine overs on the try. There were two of the best players in the world doing their things. That’s what he’s about, he’s about those special moments, those inspiring moments,” he added.
The Englishman was assured that the followers would proceed to bathe Kohli with affection and respect at any time when he entered the Chinnaswamy stadium.
“I’m sure the fans will show him lots of love this week when they see him again. Just to go back to where I started, he’s business as usual, we all are.
“He’s spoken to some of us about issues in the previous couple of weeks, however you already know what he’s like, he’s fairly clear on what he desires to do,” he noted.
There have been fervent calls on social media for fans to wear white jerseys to honour Kohli the Test cricketer but Bobat said such acts would not have much impact on their game as a whole.
“It’s not one thing we have considered or talked about an excessive amount of. I’ve definitely seen that the followers have been speaking about that somewhat bit, however I do not assume it’s going to have a lot of an impression on our play,” he stated.
Published – May 17, 2025 02:53 am IST
