“People Can Talk…”: Virat Kohli Blasts ‘Strike Rate’ Critics After Win vs Gujarat Titans

There has been a lot of conversation over Virat Kohli‘s strike rate and style of batting in the ongoing IPL 2024 despite the Indian cricket team star batter being the highest run-getter in this year’s competition by a stretch. Kohli was once again in fine touch as he slammed an unbeaten 70 off just 44 deliveries as Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Gujarat Titans by 9 wickets. Following the victory, Kohli blasted his critics by saying that he does not concentrate on the chatter surrounding his strike rate and he believes that no one who has not played cricket at a high level can understand these situations properly.

“Not really, all the people who talk about strike-rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff. For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years, you’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game in the box. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” Kohli said after the match.

“We wanted to step up for ourselves, play for our self respect. We can’t be playing the way we played in the first half of the tournament, we wanted to see the ball as well, we are attacking way more, the fielders are putting their bodies on the line, that’s the way we want to play. We haven’t been up to standards so far except the last two games, but we just want to continue the same way, we have a great atmosphere in the dressing room. We want to play for ourselves, have some self respect as to why we’re playing at this level and also for the fans who’ve been supporting us,” the star India batter added.

Coming to the match, RCB kept their IPL 2024 playoff dreams alive thanks to another brilliant knock from Kohli and a sensational century from Will Jacks.