Kohli’s teammate at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Indian team, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik has seen from up close Kohli’s evolution into one of the most iconic figures in world cricket. Talking about it on Cricbuzz, and how Kohli turned it around to end up scoring 741 runs in IPL 2014, Karthik said Kohli always thrives on situations where he has to prove people wrong, like in the case when former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull and some of the other cricket experts had questioned Kohli’s strike-rate during the initial part of just-concluded IPL season.
“Virat Kohli – well, I can write a book on how he was this year (IPL 2024),” said Karthik. “He started okay, but I think thanks to people like Simon and a few others who really spurred him on. And you don’t want to see that side of Virat Kohli.
“I think, he thrives on that. He is someone who, inadvertently, wants to hold onto certain things to do well. He loves proving people wrong. Even though he might not come out and say it, it fuels his passion. He is like a molten lava coming out. He is fiery and you don’t want to be anywhere close to him because you are gonna get burnt for sure. He has done this time and time again.”
(Virat Kohli and Mohammed Siraj – ANI Photo)
RCB have never managed to win the IPL title in 17 years since the league’s inception in 2008. Despite that, Kohli stuck with RCB and might continue to do so for the remainder of his career. For that reason and more, Karthik believes RCB owe it to Kohli for whatever success they have had.
“You can speak about RCB, their success and all of that. But it is not happening without that man, and I am not saying with his batting. It’s the intimidating feeling that he gives when he is on the field. the way he pushes fielders,” said Karthik.
The just-retired stumper then made a light comment on the way Kohli motivates his RCB teammates during the timeout.
“If you ever had a mic in one of those timeouts, my god! There will be a lot of bleeps for this. And ‘Ben Stokes’ will be mentioned a bit,” said Karthik, and smiled. “But if you look past all that, the intensity that he carries and he expects each player to do, boy, I doff my hat to him. To be doing that in the 17th year of IPL, stand up and applaud the man because RCB and its fans should be grateful to have a guy like that. He is built differently, and that is what propels him.”
(Virat Kohli – AFP Photo)
Player-turned-commentator Doull was also part of the discussion on Cricbuzz; and while he admitted having questioned Kohli’s strike-rate, he wondered what makes pepople take a criticial comment on somebody’s game to such extreme levels where he received death threats for it, especially when it’s part of his job as a cricket expert and commentator.
“I see a phenomenal player (in Kohli) who should be dominating more than what he was. That was my point around it. That’s why I talked about his strike rate. I felt at times he was afraid to get out because he was worried about what was behind him rather than just saying ‘I am so good’. And he is so good,” explained Doull.
“I have said a thousand great things about Virat Kohli, but I say one thing that might be slightly negative, or construed to be negative, and I get death threats. Thats’ what happened.”
Doull added that “it’s never personal”.
(Virat Kohli – PTI Photo)
“We have had great conversations. I have interviewed him at the toss, we have talked after games; it has never been a issue. I would never have any reason to have a personal issue,” said the New Zealander.
Karthik concluded the discussion urging the fans to be able to differentiate between something personal and something that is purely from the point of view of cricket.
“Somewhere Indian fans should find out the difference between people taking him (Kohli) on personally and people talking about the cricketing side of him. I think Virat appreciates it if you can find a difference,” said Karthik.